■ / 



Life of 
Reverdy Johnso 



r- 



By Bernard C. Steiner, Ph.D., LL.B. 

Librarian of the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore City 



WITH portrait 




THE NORMAN, REMINGTON CO. 
BALTIMORE 



'Jl:io ^8 



THK NORMAN, REMINGTON CO 
PiiBLrsHED September, iqi* 



COMPOSED AND PRINTED AT THH 

WAVEKLY PRESS 
By the Williams & Wilktns Compant 

RAr.TIMOHH TT S A 



PREFACE 

After the argument of his first case in the Supreme Court 
in 1806, another Maryland lawyer (Luther Martin was the 
first), William Pinkney, stepped to the front, where he remained 
until his death in 1822 — the undisputed head of the American 
Bar (Warren, History of American Bar, p, 259). 

William Pinkney remained the undisputed head of the Bar, 
until his death in 1822. Thereafter Daniel Webster over- 
shadowed all others in the importance of cases argued and in 
the mastery of the great principles of constitutional law (op. 
cit., p. 368).. 

William Wirt of Maryland continued in constant and vigor- 
ous practise until his death in 1834, and his place at the Bar 
was taken by Reverdy Johnson, who, for many years after 
Webster's death, was regarded as the leading American lawyer 
(op. cit., p. 411). 

The paragraphs which have just been quoted show the 
esteem in which the subject of this biography is held as 
a lawyer. His eminence is by no means confined to 
practice at the bar. Entering politics, he was elected to 
the United States Senate as a Whig, and, though he 
supported the loose construction and protective princi- 
ples of his party, he broke from it as to the Mexican War. 
In Taylor's cabinet he served as attorney general. At 
the break up of the Whig party, he became a follower of 
Douglas. A Border State Union man, his efforts were 
notable in 1861 to prevent the secession of his state. 
While serving a second term in the United States Senate, 
his mediating position was an important one. He was 
thoroughly loyal, yet sympathized with the Southern peo- 
ple and, in the difficult period of reconstruction, he did 
much towards ameliorating conditions. But for him 

iii 



IV PREFACE 

Andrew Johnson would have been convicted, when 
impeached. Sent to England as United States minister, 
he negotiated the Johnson-Clarendon treaty, which, 
though rejected, was the basis of the arrangement under 
which the difficulties with Great Britain were finally 
adjusted. The life of a man whose career was so impor- 
tant is worthy of being written. The author's especial 
attention was drawn thereto, when he was asked to pre- 
pare a sketch of Johnson for the series of Great American 
Lawyers, edited by Professor William Draper Lewis. 
So much interesting material was then collected that it 
has now been worked up into this extended biography. 
Great assistance has been found in the valuable collec- 
tions of the Maryland Historical Society; The frontis- 
piece is a reproduction of the photograph of Johnson best 
liked by his family. Especial thanks are due to Clayton 
C. Hall, Esq., who married Mr. Johnson's granddaughter, 
for his interest and criticism. 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Chapter I 
Early Life and Legal Practice (1796-1845) i 

Chapter II 
Senator, Attorney-General, Lawyer (1845-1860) 22 

Chapter III 
The S truggle in Maryland to Preserve the Union ( 1 860- 1 86 2 ) 43 

Chapter IV 
Service in the Senate during the War (1863-1865) 61 

Chapter V 
The Thirty-Ninth Congress and Reconstruction (1865-1867) 118 

Chapter VI 
The Impeachment Session (1867-1868) . . . 198 

Chapter VII 
Minister to England (1868-1869) 233 

Chapter VIII 
Last Years and Death (1869-1876) 259 

Index 273 



CHAPTER I 

Early Life and Legal Practice (i 796-1 845) 

The influence of the lawyer has been great in all parts 
of the United States, and in no state has it been greater 
than in Maryland. Men of eminent ability have shed 
lustre on the bar in Maryland for two centuries, from 
the time that Andrew Hamilton, who became the first 
American with a continental legal reputation, prepared 
a revision of the Provincial statutes, while he was a 
member of the General Assembly in 1715.^ From that 
time onward, the roll of legal worthies is a long and 
honored one, bearing such names as those of the Dulanys, 
of Chase, of Paca, of Martin, of Pinkney, and of Taney, 
With the very first of these in ability and reputation, 
stands the name of Reverdy Johnson, who was esteemed 
by other members of his profession so highly that for 
a number of years before his death he was considered 
the leader of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United 
States.^ He was not alone a lawyer, but also was inter- 
ested in governmental affairs, as so many attomeys- 
at-law have been, and became an important figure in 
National politics during the latter portion of his life. 
At the time of the Civil War, he took the side of the 
Union and like another eminent member of the Balti- 
more bar, Henry Winter Davis, rendered noteworthy 
public service to the country.' 

1 See Vol. 20, Perm. Mag. of Hist., October. 1896, and Report of American 
Hist. Ass. for 1899, p. 229. 

* See N. Sergeant's Public Men and Events. 

' This biography is elaborated from a sketch, written for W. D. Lewis's 
Great American Lawyers and appearing in Vol. IV of that work at page 409. 



2 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Reverdy Johnson was the son of John Johnson and 
of Deborah, the daughter of Reverdy Ghieselen. The 
maternal grandfather was of Huguenot ancestry, had 
been commissioner of the Land Office of Maryland and 
was associated with the Rev. Thomas Bacon in the prep- 
aration of that remarkable compilation of the laws of 
Maryland, which was the finest production of the press 
of the English colonies in America. John Johnson was 
a lawyer,^ who served the State as member of both 
houses of the legislature, as attorney general, as judge 
of the Court of Appeals, and as chancellor. In this 
last office, he was followed by an older son, John John- 
son, Jr. With such relatives, Reverdy Johnson natu- 
rally thought of law as his life work. 

He was born at Annapolis* on May 21, 1796, and grew 
up at the Capital of Maryland, being educated at St. 
John's College there, until he was sixteen. He then 
began reading law with his father and, completing his 

studies in the office of Judge Stephen, was admitted 

to the bar in 18 16, at the age of twenty. While a stu- 
dent, during the British alarms of 1814, he served for 
a time as a private in the 22nd regiment of Maryland 
militia.® 

After being admitted to the practice of law, Johnson 

* See the Bowies and their Kin, p. 162. 

* Other accounts of his life are found in Richardson and Bennett's Baltimore, 
86 Eclectic Magazine 502 (with steel engraving) by W. H. Bidwell, 3 Green Bag 
317 (with portrait) by E. L. Didier, and 20 Harper's Weekly 165 (with picture) 
1 Forum (Bench and Bar Review), 367 (1874) with engraving, 10 Cent. L. J. 
106 (1876). An engraving of his portrait, at the time he was attorney-gen- 
eral, is found in 5 Am. Rev. 549, (June 1849). Alexander Randall, Esq., in 
the remarks he made at the memorial meeting of the Md. Court of Appeals 
on February 11, 1876, said of ^Johnson: "He was the friend of my childhood 
and lived under my father's roof." 43 Md. Repts. 

- * A pay warrant is extant dated August 13, 1814, signed by Nicholas Brewer, 
to pay Johnson for his services $2.78, at the rate of $0.26 a day. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 3 

settled at Upper Marlborough, the county seat of Prince 
George's County, where the little brick building, in 
which was his office, is still standing. It is said that 
he was so discouraged by his first speech in the court 
there that he would have abandoned the law, but for 
the encouragement of Judge Edmund Key of the Prince 
George's Court. ^ Persevering in the profession, he soon 
displayed such ability that he was appointed by the 
Attorney-General of Maryland his deputy for the judicial 
district. In a little more than a year from beginning 
practice, Johnson removed to Baltimore, so as to have 
a wider field, ^ and continued in active practice at the 
bar of that city until his death, nearly sixty years later. 
Two years after removing to Baltimore, on November 
1 6, 1819, he married Mary Mackall Bowie, who bore 
him fifteen children and with whom he lived happily 
for over forty years, until her death. She was the 
daughter of Thomas Con tee and Mary Mackall Bowie 
and the grand-daughter of Governor Robert Bowie. 

Johnson's legal career soon proved one of great bril- 
liancy and success, because of the vigor of his intellect 

^ Bowies and their Kin. 

* He told Mr. Edward Higgins that, when he established himself in Balti- 
more, he had not the means to furnish his residence in the manner he wished 
and arranged with the leading cabinet maker in the City to furnish it and 
receive payment from time to time, as would be convenient for Johnson, who 
would pay interest on the indebtedness in the meantime. From Mr. Higgins 
also comes the following anecdote: When a young man he was engaged in the 
trial of a case in nisi prius and was associated with Luther Martin. On the 
other side in the array of counsel appeared a man of unusual force in the trial 
of a cause, Walter Dorsey. The case consumed a number of days, during which 
there were a number of "animated" tilts between counsel. Mr. Martin brought 
into court every morning and carried away in the afternoon, a quire or more 
of cap paper. So far as Mr. Johnson observed, Mr. Martin made but one entry 
on the paper and it seemed to be very brief, and he had the curiosity to see 
what it was. A little while before Mr. Martin addressed the jury the oppor- 
tunity came, and he read as follows: "Scold Wat Dorsey." 



4 REVERDY JOHNSON 

and the determination of his character. His quickness 
of mind, his remarkable memory, his unbroken cheer- 
fulness, his power of repartee, his uniform courtesy and 
urbanity, his cogent and resistless arguments, his deep 
and impressive voice, ^ his tact and skill in the manage- 
ment of causes, his lucidly and logically arranged dis- 
course, delivered to court or jury; all these united to 
make him a powerful advocate and give him a great 
reputation as a nisi prius lawyer. His skill in the cross 
examination of witnesses was so great that "his con- 
temporaries agreed that, in this line, he stood abso- 
lutely without an equal." With such mental equipment, 
Johnson soon made his way among the able men at the 
Baltimore bar and Robert Goodloe Harper, then one 
of its leaders, is reported to have said: "There is that 
young man, Reverdy Johnson, sir, he is very clever. He 
may lead them all yet." He was soon appointed chief 
commissioner of insolvent debtors and his experience in 
this post proved valuable to him in later years, when 
he had a part in the framing of the national bankruptcy 
law. Edwin Higgins, Esq., of the Baltimore Bar, who 
was associated with Johnson during the later years of 
his life, furnished some interesting memoranda concern- 
ing him as a lawyer: 

Mr. Johnson while nearly an octogenarian, retained to the 
last his remarkable vigor of intellect. His power of analysis 
and his reasoning faculties, supported by robustness of expres- 
sion, commanded attention and carried conviction 

If I were asked to name the foundation of his fame as the 
Nestor of the American Bar, I would declare it to be his untir- 
ing, persistent preparation for the trial of causes committed 
to his professional care. 

•When he twitted Henry Winter Davis for taking notes, Davis retorted 
"Yes, Mr. Johnson, but you will please remember that unlike the lion in the 
play, I have something more to do than to roar." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 5 

Over and over again, he required me to read the authorities, 
while he would bid me, from time to time, to pause, listen to 
his running criticism of assent or dissent. He studied the case 
in hand thoroughly and when the contest came he was pre- 
pared He was fair to the witness who he 

believed was truthful — but unrelenting in the interest of his 
client, in the cross examination of one, who he thought had 
not told the whole truth, and arraigned the latter by a sifting 
analysis of his testimony before the jury. 

Mr. Johnson's favorite position in addressing a jury was 
immediately in front; often with the left hand in his trousers' 
pocket. When he became aroused in argument he would with- 
draw it and then, uplifting his right arm, would use it vigorously 
with partially open hand to emphasize his argument. I always 
felt when he had argued his case, not that he had exhausted 
his resources, but had taken a few dippersful from an inex- 
haustible well. No young man, if he was attentive in the con- 
sultation, could be associated with Mr. Johnson, in the prep- 
aration of a cause for trial without becoming ready for it. 
I recall a mass meeting of the Bar held in the old 
Superior Court Room for the purpose of bringing about some 
reforms, over which meeting Mr. Johnson presided. After 
several addresses, Mr. Johnson called Mr. John H. B. Latrobe 
to the chair, came down to the trial table and made one of the 
most pleasing and profitable discourses it has been my good 
fortune to hear. It showed his appreciation of the importance 
of the study of the principles of law. He knew that the suc- 
cess in trying of a cause depends upon the mastering of -the 
principles; and the application of them in the practice of the 
profession is essential in the making of a great lawyer. Mr. 
Johnson said: "You may ask me who was the greatest lawyer 
with whom I have been brought in contact, I answer, William 
Pinkney, by all odds. It is true he had but few cases every 
year, but they were cases. He made himself master of them 
in every possible way." 

In the trial of a case in which I was associated with Mr. 
Johnson, the counsel for the opposite side, had, as Mr. Johnson 



6 > REVERDY JOHNSON 

believed, stepped aside from the discussion of the evidence 
to arraign his client, and incidentally, to reflect, as it were, 
upon Mr. Johnson. When his turn came, Mr. Johnson said: 
"Sometimes when a lawyer has a poor case he resorts to 
traducing the witnesses on the opposite side and if he has a 
very bad case he will go further, he will blackguard his brother 
on the other side." 

Mr. Johnson was retained by the B. & O. R. R. Co. in a very 
important matter with the understanding that, if suit was 
brought, he should receive $5,000 for services. Instead of one, 
two suits were brought. Mr. Johnson appeared in both for 
the company and was successful in each. Mr. Johnson claimed 
$5000 in each case, the Company refused to pay the $10,000 
and Mr. Johnson brought suit; the case was removed to EUicott 
City. Mr. S. Teackle WalliS appeared for Mr. Johnson. At 
the trial, after Mr. Wallis had made a masterly argument 
before the jury, and counsel for the Company was addressing 
it, it dawned upon Mr. Wallis that it would be the courteous 
thing to ask Mr. Johnson, if he would not prefer to make the 
closing argument himself. It so happened, that just about 
this time something was said by the counsel for the Railroad 
to stir the old warrior's blood and he replied with some anima- 
tion — "By the by, Teackle, I believe I will." He did not spare 
the other side and the jury gave him a verdict for the full 
amount of claim. 

Great lawyers are proverbially poor penmen. Mr. Johnson 
was not an exception to the rule. Mr. Johnson was asked for 
an opinion in writing, relative to the title of a parcel of land 
which a land improvement association wished to buy. He 
gave it in his own hand-writing, covering several pages, of 
letter paper, advising the corporation not to accept the title — 
and at the same time sent a bill for $500. The committee in 
charge of the matter were unable to read the opinion and also 
thought the fee was too much, and appointed one of their 
number to go up to see Mr'. Johnson and get him to read the 
opinion and also to ask him to make a deduction in his bill. 
The gentleman returned and reported that he had to explain 



REVERDY JOHNSON * 7 

the case to Mr. Johnson again when the latter readily deci- 
phered the hieroglyphics — and declined to reduce his fee, say- 
ing that it was not too much, that he had just charged the 
Union Bank a fee of $3,000 for an opinion which had not re- 
quired much more of his time. My informant added the $500 
paid for the opinion turned out an excellent investment, for the 
corporation followed it, and the sequel showed it was saved 
from very much trouble and loss. 

Judge J. Upshur Dennis, of Baltimore, considered that 
Johnson's strength was as a "nisi prius" lawyer and that 
he was best suited for the work of the trial table.*" 

It was a treat to see him fence with a bright but hostile 
witness — how he would joke with, him and provoke repartee, 
out of which Mr. Johnson was pretty sure to get something 
on his own side of the case before he got through, either from 
the witness himself, or by his own replies intended for the 
jury; for of the jury he never lost sight, from the time the case 
was called, until the verdict was announced. No answer of 
the witness, no matter how unexpected, ever seemed to dis- 
concert him; he acted as if it was the very thing he was look- 
ing for and would make some suggestion or give some inter- 
pretation, which would make it seem that the answer was really 
in his favor. 

Judge Dennis also spoke of 

his imposing appearance, his manners and a certain original 
way of saying and doing things, which from others would have 
fallen flat, but from him always counted. He spoke slowly, 
in a full strong voice, deliberately, and even at the climax of 
his argument, was seldom ever loud, or at all passionate — only 
more grave and dignified and with more pronounced emphasis. 
He was the very embodiment of good nature, as I knew him 

" These extracts are taken from a paper read by Judge Dennis before the 
Maryland State Bar Association in 1905 and published in the Association's 
Proceedings for that year. 



8 REVERDY JOHNSON 

at the trial table and elsewhere — full of humor, full of fun, even 
jocose when the occasion permitted. While he was not witty 
in the strict sense of the word, yet he was fond of repartee 
and seldom came off second best. The sharp shafts of his 
opponent's wit or sarcasm evoked his laughter and apparent 
enjoyment of the thrust, even at his own expense, as heartily 
as that of any of the audience, while he was sure to come 
back with some blunt, broadly humorous retort that rarely 
failed to turn the laugh upon his adversary." 

Johnson entered the field of politics, w^hen he accepted 
an election to the membership of the Senate of Mary- 
land to fill a vacancy caused by General John Strieker's 
declining an election. The Senate was then composed 

1' Hon. Charles E. Phelps in 1906 gave me the following interesting anecdote 
of Johnson: "Many years ago, I happened to be present in the Court Room 
during the trial of an important will case, in which Mr. Johnson was the lead- 
ing counsel on one side and Mr. Wm. Norris on the other. The contest had 
been in progress many days and some friction had developed. On this occa- 
sion, Mr. Norris took the floor, immediately after the noon recess, and deemed 
it his duty, solemnly, to call the attention of the Court to what he complained of 
as irregular conduct (I am not quite sure he did not use the word unprofes- 
sional) of his learned brother, in approaching familiarly gentlemen of the jury 
during recess and cultivating them individually. I was one of those who, hav- 
ing seen this going on, from day to day, felt that the protest of Mr. Norris was 
called for and that the conduct of Mr. Johnson was a very bad example to 
the younger members of the profession." 

"At this distance of time, some half century, I shall not imdertake to repro- 
duce the few but telling words of Mr. Johnson's triumphant reply, sarcastic, 
withering in fact, but perfectly good-humored. He expressed innocent sur- 
prise, he was not indignant but hurt, that the zeal of advocacy could go so far 
as to impute unworthy motives to the open conduct of a professional brother, 
who might ask a personal friend on the jury as to the health of his sick wife, 
or even go so far as to borrow his newspaper, or who should have so poor an 
opinion of the integrity of those high-toned gentlemen who composed this 
jury, as to imagine, for a moment, that any one of them was capable of being 
corrupted by these commonplace, ordinary courtesies of civilized life." 

"It was Mr. Johnson's easy and assured manner, even more than his matter 
that closed the incident, and left him master of the situation. I do not remem- 
ber what notice, if any, was taken of it by the Court, but my recollection is 
that, after that episode, Mr. Johnson was rather less communicative with 
jurors." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 9 

of fifteen members, who were chosen for a term of five 
years by an electoral college elected by the voters of 
the State. Vacancies occurring in the Senate were filled 
for the remainder of the term by the vote of the remain- 
ing members. The Republican party, with which John- 
son was affiliated in his early life, had secured a majority 
in the electoral college of 1821 and had elected a Senate 
entirely composed of the members of that party. He 
served throughout the term, from his election on Decem- 
ber 10, 1821, and was reelected in 1826, but resigned on 
March 8, 1828, owing to the pressure of his professional 
engagements. 

His desire to improve the administration of the law 
led him to introduce and, unsuccessfully, to urge the pas- 
sage of a bill to enable parties to a law suit to testify 
therein and he aided in the accomplishment of certain 
measures of internal improvement, delaying his resig- 
nation, in order to aid in the accomplishment of several 
such measures. The vacancy caused by his resignation 
was filled on January 2, 1829. 

His complaisance is shown in two letters, both signed 
by Isaac McKim and Johnson and dated February 13, 
1822, recommending to the Governor's attention two dif- 
ferent men, who were candidates for appointment as 
attorney general of Mary land. ^2 jt should be stated, 
however, that one man is recommended for appoint- 
ment, and testimony is given merely to the legal abilities 
of the other. 

Through his advocacy of a broad construction of the 
Federal Constitution, he became a member of the Whig 
party at its organization, but he remained out of politi- 
cal life for seventeen years from the time of his resig- 
nation of his position in the State Senate. 

^ Md. Hist. Mag., vol. 6, p. 42. 



lO REVERDY JOHNSON 

In 1 82 1, he became associated with Thomas Harris, 
Clerk of the Maryland Court of Appeals, in the com- 
pilation of a series of reports of the cases decided in that 
Court, which series is known, from the names of the com- 
pilers, as Harris and Johnson's reports. Seven volumes 
were issued, the last one appearing in 1827, and they 
covered the Court's decisions for the years from 1800 
to 1826. 

During the early years of Johnson's practice, he grew 
to know with some intimacy and greatly to admire 
Roger B. Taney, then practicing law in Frederick. They 
met in 18 15, when Johnson was admitted to practice 
in the Court of Appeals and, in the years before Taney 
entered Jackson's Cabinet, they often conversed about 
the Bank of the United States, on which occasions Taney 
assured Johnson that if he were in the Cabinet, he 
should feel it to be his duty to remove the public money 
from the bank. After Taney's death, at a meeting of 
the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, on Decem- 
ber 6, 1864, Johnson gave this Chief Justice this praise: 

It was my good fortune to have his confidence and friend- 
ship, almost from the first, and greatly did I profit by it. Often 
his associate, and often his opponent, I had constant oppor- 
tunities of judging of his legal learning, of his ability in its use, 
and the fair and elevated ground upon which he ever acted. 
In neither relation is it possible to exaggerate his excellence. 

At this period, Johnson's practice was growing rap- 
idly." In 1827, he pleaded his first case in the United 

"On August I, 1868, on the eve of departing for England}, Johnson wrote 
Rev. Thomas McCormick, thanking him for an engraving of Luther Martin 
and stating: "It was my good fortune to know him personally and to have 
argued several cases with him, and to have had in him a constant and valued 
friend." Johnson's opinion of the elder lawyer, expressed in this letter, is 
worthy of being remembered: "Whether Mr. Martin's character be estimated 



REVERDY JOHNSON II 

States Supreme Court, the important one of Brown v. 
Maryland^^ in which he was one of the lawyers for the 
State, and in" which the important doctrines of Lh^ "orig- 
inal package" and the "police power" first appeared. 
About the same time, he became one of the first counsel 
for the newly chartered Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
of which corporation he was one of the legal advisers 
for nearly half a century, ^^ His success was so great 
that, in 1831, fifteen years after he had been admitted 
to the bar and when he was thirty-five years of age, 
he had an income of nearly $11,000 and, for each of 
several years thereafter, he received about the same 
amount. He had friendly relations with such other law- 
yers as J. V. L. McMahon, the historian and author of 
the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

Among his associates was Evan Poultney, who was 

' prominent in local financial circles, and who induced 

him, in September, 1831, to become a director of the 

Bank of Maryland, of which Poultney was president. 

Later, Johnson became one of the organizers of an insur- 

by his steady patriotism during the Revolution, or by his services in the Coun- 
cils of the State, or in the Convention which framed the Constitution, or as a 
law>-eF, it stands as high as that of any man who lived during the same period." 

'* Taney was with him. Wm. Meredith and Wirt were the opposing attor- 
neys. 12 WTieaton 419. His first case in the Maryland Court of Appeals was 
Biays v. Marine Bank 4 Harris & Johnson 338. 

1* Among the papers showing Johnson's usefulness to the railroad is his 
opinion on the dividend, sent from Washington on January 23, 1847, to Louis 
McLane, the President, which opinion was printed on March 6, as Document 

5 of the Maryland House of Delegates at the December Session of 1846. John- 
son approved the conduct of the railroad, in using the net earnings for im- 
provements an^ giving bonds and one per cent in cash to holders of fifty shares 
and upwards of stock, but cash alone to those holding less than fifty shares. 
He was one of the counsel for the road in the early great case of Chesapeake 

6 Ohio Canal v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad reported in 4 Gill v. Johnson. 
Daniel \\'ebster was with him and A. C. Magruder and Walter Jones opposed 
them. 



12 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ance company, In which the same persons were inter- 
ested as in the bank. Engrossed in legal affairs, Johnson 
paid little attention to the affairs of the bank and can- 
not be acquitted of the charge of serving as a dummy 
director. In 1834, ^he bank failed and its funds were 
shown to have been used for speculative purposes. Three 
trustees were appointed, and McMahon and Johnson 
were named as their counsel. The trustees fell out, two 
of them disagreeing with the third. Ugly charges of 
fraud were made on both sides, and a war of pamphlets 
followed between the former president of the bank and 
the majority of the trustees. Considerable delay oc- 
curred, and a great deal of litigation hindered the depos- 
itors from receiving any part of their claims. A suit 
brought by the bank's trustees against a person asso- 
ciated with the former president was removed from 
Baltimore to Bel Air and tried there in May and June, 
1835. An array of able counsel was engaged on either 
side and considerable latitude was allowed in the recep- 
tion of evidence, with the result that Johnson was con- 
clusively cleared from any wrong-doing in connection 
with the bank. Johnson's own argument in summing 
up was said by a fellow attorney to have scourged the 
defendant "naked, for three days, until even his adver- 
saries were moved to compassionate him." 

In Baltimore, however, many were led to believe that 
Johnson and the trustees were responsible for the failure 
to settle the bank's affairs promptly and, on the evening 
of August 7, while Johnson was with his family at 
Annapolis, whither he had gone on professional business, 
a mob gathered and broke some of the windows of his 
house. The mayor, who had been a director of the 
broken bank, was Inefficient. On Friday, the 8th, more 
damage was done, after a meeting of the bank's credi- 



REVERDY JOHNSON I3 

tors had demanded that the trustees turn over the insti- 
tution's books to them. On Saturday, anonymous in- 
flammatory placards were scattered throughout the city 
and, on that night, a number of the citizens, called 
together by the mayor, some armed with round sticks 
and so called the "rolling pin guards" and others with 
muskets, met the mob, but the weakness of the city 
authorities finally left the lawless elements of the popu- 
lation in control of the situation and on Saturday night 
and Sunday, the houses of Johnson and the trustees 
were plundered and destroyed by fire. On Monday, 
the veteran, General Samuel Smith, was induced to place 
himself at the head of those citizens who wished order 
restored, the mayor resigned, and the mob was dis- 
persed without calling upon Federal troops. Johnson 
went from Annapolis to Bel Air, whence he and his asso- 
ciates were soon invited to return to Baltimore and were 
promised the protection of the First Company of Inde- 
pendent Volunteers. He came back,- rebuilt his house on 
Monument Square, bought William Wirt's law library 
of four or five thousand volumes to take the place of 
the one he had lost,^^ and, on petition to the General 
Assembly, was allowed in 1839, nearly $41,000 indem- 
nity, on the ground that this loss had occurred through 
failure of the civil authorities to protect his property. 
Just after the riots on August 17 Johnson wrote from 
Baltimore to a friend, L. P. W. Balch, Esq., who was 
then practicing law in Frederick City, in reply to a 
note of sympathy*^ and said: 

In the midst of all my troubles, tears have never come from 
me, until reading your most kind letter. There is something 

1^ Many of the books in this library were burned in the Baltimore fire of 1904. 
'" Balch endorsed the reply, "Reverdy Johnson's letter when his house was 



14 REVERDY JOHNSON 

SO touching in a heartfelt sympathy, that I was overwhelmed 
by it. What I have lost in property is to me, comparatively, 
of no value. I would at any moment cheerfully sacrifice all 
to stand unimpeached before my fellow citizens, and I must 
hope that, so far, I do retain, with a large portion of them, my 
reputation for integrity unimpaired. I am entirely unable to 
say how deeply sensible I feel for your kindness. My heart 
is too full to suffer me to describe my feelings. Any effort to 
do so would be more than useless. There is only one thing 
more that you can do to make me, if possible, still more warmly 
grateful to you than I am already. My professional character 
is better known to my brethren than to any other class of the 
community. And an expression of opinion from your hand 
would be most highly gratifying to me. 

I suggest it with diffidence and feel that you duly appreciate 
my motive. ^^ 

In ansA\^er to a similar letter, McMahon wrote John- 
son that: 

I have always found you a man in whose abilities and integrity 
I could repose full confidence; that I have never had occasion 
to falter in that admiration of your talents and character which 

'* This letter was printed by Mr. T. W. Balch in his Balch Genealogica at 
p. 213. As Johnson destroyed his papers, according to the recollections of 
his son, the late Reverdy Johnson, Jr., very few manuscripts remain which 
give information as to the life of our subject. The account of Johnson's con- 
nection with the bank and the riots is based upon the study of the following 
authorities: 3 Scharf, History of Maryland, 176; Scharf, Baltimore Citj^ and 
County 778; Scharf, Chron. of Baltimore, 474; The Memorial of Reverdy John- 
son of the City of Baltimore to the Legislature of Maryland with appendii 
1840, pp. 46; Memorial of Reverdy Johnson praying indemnity for the destruc- 
tion of his property in the City of Baltimore by a mob in August, 1835, to the 
Legislature of Maryland, Annapolis 1836, pp. 18; Evan Poultney, Brief Expo- 
sition of the Matters Relating to the Bank of Marj^land, p. 86; Poultney, An 
Appeal to the Creditors of the Bank of Maryland and the Public Generally, 
183s; Memorial to the Legislature of Mar>'land by John B. Morris, 1836, pp. 
21; Extracts from the Correspondence and Minutes of the Trustees of the Bank 
of Maryland published by J. B. Morris and R. W. Gill, two of the Trustees, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 5 

has grown up from a long and intimate acquaintance; and that, 
whatever others may say, I claim, what I hope I shall long 
enjoy, the privilege of calling you my friend. 

Johnson's busy professional career was seriously af- 
fected by an accident which occurred in 1842.1^ One 
of his friends had challenged a man, who had struck him, 
to fight a duel, and the challenger had come to Johnson's 
house to elude the officer who had a warrant of arrest 
against him. Whilst his friend w^as his guest, Johnson 
practiced with a duelling pistol. A bullet from the pis- 
tol rebounded from a hickory sapling at which he aimed 
and struck his left eye, so injuring it that he lost the 
sight of that eye. This was probably the cause of his 
later portraits being always in profile. In the course 
of time, the other eye failed through sympathetic action 
and he became nearly blind. Judge Dennis says: 

"He could not walk the streets, or even a room with furniture 
in it, without the guiding assistance of some one, and was not 
able to recognize features at all;" but he "gained a remarkable 
skill in distinguishing voices and delighted to show friends to 
the last that he could find on the shelves of his library any book 

having relation, principally, to their intercourse with Poultney, Ellicott & Co. 
and Evan Poultney, 1835, pp. 64; Anonymous, To the creditors of the Bank 
of Maryland, pp. 7; Anonymous, Final Reply to the Libels of Evan Poultney, 
late President of the Bank of Maryland and a further examination of the Causes 
of the Failure of that Institution, 1835, pp. 146; The Report and Testimony 
taken before the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Delegates of 
Maryland to which was referred the Memorials of John B. Morris, Reverdy 
Johnson and others, praying indemnity for losses sustained by reason of the 
riots in Baltimore in the month of August, 1835, pp. 77; Reply to a Pamphlet, 
entitled a brief exposition of matters relating to the Bank of Maryland, pp. 
59; State of Md. v. Bank of Md. 6 G. & J. 205; Union Bank of Tenn. v. Ellicott, 
6 G. & J. 364; Campbell v. Poultney. 6 G. & J. 94; Bank of Md. v. Ruff. 7 G. 
& J. 44S. 

" 2 N. Sergeant's Public Men and Events. In 1832, Samuel Houston sent 
Johnson with a challenge to Stansberry on account of language used by the 
latter on the floor of the House of Representatives. 16 S. W. Hist Quar. 124. 



1 6 REVERDY JOHNSON 

he wished, from the lettering on the back. Great as was his 
calamity, he was undaunted by it, had the newspapers read 
to him for important events and, as he had been always cour- 
teous to others, found a return of that courtesy in the eager- 
ness with which his juniors at the trial table gladly found his 
references in the books. ^^ 

His blindness was the less of a misfortune to him, in 
that he was not in the habit of citing many authorities. 
Never a bookish lawyer, he devoted himself chiefly to 
evolving rules applicable to the particular case from the 
fundamental principles of the law. His limitations of 
sight prevented him from being a profound student of 
reports of textbooks in general, but he knew the Feder- 
alist, and the Commentaries of Kent and Story on the 
Constitution, as well as the reports of the United States 
Supreme Court, so thoroughly that he had a wonderful 
fluency of reference to them, and his remembrance of 
events in American History was so great that his power 
as a constitutional lawyer was scarcely affected. Judge 
Charles E. Phelps tells an anecdote showing that John- 
son could even jest as to his blindness: 

There had been a temperance meeting in Baltimore a few 
evenings before Johnson met Judge Hugh Lennox Bond, and 
Judge Bond, referring to it, remarked: "Mr. Johnson, I was 
very glad to see you on the platform at our temperance meet- 
ing the other night." 

"Yes," said Mr. Johnson, "and I had you in my eye, Judge." 

"Which eye, Mr. Johnson?" 

"Why, which one do you suppose? The only one that can 
see." 

"He was a thorough master of the underlying prin- 
ciples," says Judge Dennis, "and his powerful intellect 

2" Vide Forney's remarks in Proceedings of Bench and Bar after Johnson's 
death. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 17 

and extraordinary gift of common sense built upon these 
foundation stones a structure that was difficult for any 
attack to shatter." For example, the case of Bayne v. 
the National Banks, tried in the United States Circuit 
Court in Baltimore, before Chief Justice Chase and 
Disti'ict Judge Giles, involved a very large amount of 
money and the correct interpretation of the national 
banking law.^^ Against Johnson was Judge Benjamin 
R. Curtis of Boston, Johnson's great rival at the bar, 
yet in the speech he made then, which still seemed to 
Judge Dennis many years afterwards, " the greatest law 
argument" he ever heard, he referred to only one author- 
ity, "and few that heard him, after he had argued out 
his case on principle, thought that he needed the sup- 
port of even that one citation." Not only did he cite 
very few authorities, but he was equally sparing of 
quotations and allusions to persons and events in history 
outside of the national history of the United States. In 
all his speeches, I have come across hardly half a dozen 
quotations and these, singularly enough, are all of verses 
of poetry of very little merit. Unfriendly critics com- 
mented on this lack of display of literary attainments 
and said they would not go to court to hear him speak, 
as they "had no desire to hear a man whose vocabulary 
consisted of six hundred words;" but the men, who went 
to hear him, listened to a forceful and well chosen vocab- 
ulary, powerfully used and adequate to carry conviction 
of the cause argued. He had a little trick of repeating 
a noun with each of several adjectives by which he 
wished to modify it and certain words of Latin ongin 
were favorites with him ; as for example, he said termina- 
tio?i instead of end. But there were few mannerisms in 
his straightforward and direct discourse. 

"■^ This case is not reported. 



1 8 REVERDY JOHNSON 

He never bore malice, and when an altercation in 
the Criminal Court, in which he often practiced, led in 
June, 1843, to a challenge to a duel between him and 
George R. Richardson, another attorney, a prompt 
arrest of Johnson by warrant and a day or two's reflec- 
tion brought him to shake hands with his antagonist in 
open court and to a complete reconciliation which lasted 
until death. 22 

The most complete description, which I have found 
of Johnson's personal appearance in his prime is given 
by Judge Dennis: 

He was of medium height, round bodied, solidly, almost 
sturdily, built, just such a physical mould as indicated perfect 
health, capacity for work and endurance, without the risk of 
a breakdown, of all the toils and strains of the most active life 
at the trial table. He was cursed with neither nerves nor 
liver, but was the robust embodiment of mens sana in corpore 
sano. His features were strong; his forehead of great height, 
fulness, and breadth; while the back of his head was shaped 
like a barrel and seemed to bulge out all around, as if indi- 
cating holding capacity. But the dome of his head was its 
most striking feature, so lofty, so symmetrically rounded, that 
it seemed to tower above all others, as the dome of St. Peter's 
minimizes all other designs. 

Shortly after 1840, Johnson visited Europe and spent 
some time in London, during which he attended the 
House of Commons for a week, in order to hear the 
debates. 2' He served as a delegate to the national Whig 
Convention in Baltimore in December, 1839 and, at a 
critical moment, read a letter from John M. Clayton 
of Delaware, declining to allow his name to be used as 
a candidate for the Vice- Presidency, which declination 

" Scharf, Baltimore City and County, 713. 
*' Speech in Senate of March 4, 1847. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 9 

led to the nomination of Tyler.^^ After Harrison's inau- 
guration, on March 21, 1841 he wrote to Francis Granger, 
the Postmaster General, recommending Richard Swann, 
who had long been a zealous Whig, for the postmaster- 
ship of Annapolis. 2^ Johnson would rather keep the in- 
cumbent in office, but knew that his conduct in the 
presidential campaign brought him under the general 
rule for removals, which rule is right in general. The 
Maryland Senators had recommended another man, but 
one of the Senators lived on the Eastern Shore and the 
other on the lower extremity of the Western Shore, and 
neither knew anything about Annapolis, where two-thirds 
of the people wished Swann's appointment. Johnson him- 
self knew the people of that city well, "being one of them 
for years and always in constant association with them." 
In the presidential campaign of 1844, he took an active 
part, serving as delegate to the Whig nominating con- 
vention in Baltimore, and presenting the report of the 
committee on the platform. He also addressed, together 
with Webster and other leaders, a vast concourse at 
a popular ratification meeting^^ at Canton, in the suburbs 
of Baltimore." A few months thereafter, the Maryland 

2*Thurlow Weed, Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 482, and Vol. II, p. 77. 

-^ After Tyler became President, Johnson wrote J. J. Crittenden on August 
30, 1841 (i Colemans Crittenden 160) that Alexander Hamilton of New York, 
an intimate friend of Tyler, had visited Baltimore to see Judge Upshur and 
Mr. Maher, and that the impression was that Hamilton had been sent to sound 
them as to a new cabinet, in which Maher should succeed Crittenden. If 
Johnson's suspicion be correct, he cannot speak of the attempt, "without 
using terms of the President that should not be applied to him except in the 
last emergency." 

2^ See Granger Papers in Library of Congress. Scharf, Chron. of Balto., 511. 
An interesting letter to Van Buren written September 29, 1840 is printed 
in the Md. Hist. Mag. for September, 1914. 

2' Mr. Higgins relates that Johnson, in the course of his speech, having 
drawn the contrast in public ser\'ice between Clay and Polk, exclaimed: "My 
fellow citizens, who is James K. Polk?" After it was "definitedly settled that 
Mr. Polk was elected President," one evening, a crowd gathered in front of 



20 REVERDY JOHNSON 

legislature elected him to the United States Senate, 
where Hon. James Alfred Pearce, his colleague presented 
his credentials on February 4, and where he was sworn 
in as a member on March 4, 1845.2^ 

Johnson's residence and began to cry, "My fellow citizens, who is James K. 
Polk?" Finally, Mr. Johnson appeared on his portico, with hat in hand and 
bowed to his audience. When all were silent, he said: "My fellow citizens, 
James K. Polk is the President-elect of the United States. Good night." He 
then retired and the assemblage dispersed in good humor. 

28 Through the courtesy of Mr. Louis H. Dielman, executive secretary of 
the Peabody Institute, we are able to quote from the autobiography of John 
P. Kennedy (II, 127, 1845), a passage which throws some light on this election: 

"Merrick's term of service in the Senate being limited to the 4th of March, 
1845, it became the duty of the Legislature last winter to make an election 
of his successor. The most active candidate for this appointment was Reverdy 
Johnson, who has been working for it for the last six years. He and his 
friends have been personally excessively industrious in attempting to obtain 
it. And as soon as the Legislature met they were on the spot using all the 
customary means to promote his success. His extreme unpopularity in the 
State was in a great degree counteracted by the assiduity of those who took 
his case in hand. There were other candidates spoken of — Cost Johnson, Wm. 
Price, Genl. Chapman and others — besides myself. 

Holding it to be a matter which deeply concerns my own character and 
my desire to preserve the utmost personal independence as well as self respect, 
I not only refused to take any steps directly in my own behalf, but also in- 
directly to engage the services of friends. I was content that the question, 
so far as I was concerned, should rest upon the uninfluenced suffrage of the 
Legislature. Early in the session it was found that Reverdy Johnson had not 
a sufl5cient force to secure his nomination in a caucus. By management there- 
fore a caucus was postponed. The Whigs had a large majority in the Legis- 
lature, and continued efforts were made to bring a sufficient number into Mr. 
R. J.'s interest. Cost Johnson, who was a member of the Legislature, told 
me after the session was over, that finally it was ascertained that Reverdy's 
party had grown strong enough to secure the nomination. Before this was 
done Cost made a proposition to withdraw his name and recommended that 
all his friends should unite upon me. It became apparent at that period that 
I would have got the nomination. This induced a concentrated and vigorous 
effort against me, which by means of such appliances as are imhappily too 
common in Legislative bodies, had its effect to secure a majority of two in 
favour of R. Johnson in the caucus. This being discovered to be the condi- 
tion of things, the caucus was held and upon the first ballot Johnson obtained 
38 votes, — 37 being sufficient for the vote. If the nomination had not sue- 



REVERDY JOHNSON 21 

ceeded on this first ballot, Cost Johnson tells me I would have received a 
large majority on the second. Reverdy Johnson thus obtained the nomina- 
tion and was elected. He is a man of talents, a very earnest Whig and will 
make an eGBcient Senator — though I have no reason to suppose he will ever 
become eminent in that body. He is a pretty good lawyer, with some very 
striking defects even in that character; but he is very far from being a good 
speaker, or an efi'ectlve debater, and he is singularly deficient in all accom- 
plishments which might render him either a conspicuous or a useful statesman. 
What redeems him however from many deficiencies, is a pleasant and attrac- 
tive good fellowship, which I think will make him popular with his party in 
the Senate. We have made in his appointment a most profitable exchange 
from Merrick." 



CHAPTER II 
Senator, Attorney-General, Lawyer (1845-1860) 

Johnson began his national career, when he was nearly 
fifty years old and at the beginning of the Mexican 
War. His first activity^ in the Senate occurred in the 
session which began in December, 1845, and he quickly 
showed himself the peer of such great men as Clay and 
Calhoun. Johnson resided in the same house with the 
latter for two sessions, and receiving much of Calhoun's 
confidence, frequently heard him in private argument, 
with "wonderful acuteness," defend nullification on con- 
sttutional grounds. Johnson never told him that he did 
not take that view, "but could see no more constitu- 
tional warrant" for nullification than for secession, which 
Calhoun carefully distinguished and which he "repudi- 
ated, as wholly indefensible as a constitutional remedy." 
Both men agreed that secession could be placed "on no 
other ground than that of revolution. "^ 

The first important speech made by Johnson on March 
II, 1846, was upon the Oregon question.^ In it, his 
eloquence and sarcasm were directed to an attack upon 
the administration. He defended a compromise on the 
line of 49°, moved that England be notified of an abro- 

' He presented petitions on December 29, and introduced, on the 30th, a 
resolution, adopted on the next day, asking the Committee on Military Affairs 
to inquire whether for purposes of defence the United States ought not to 
subscribe to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

*S. S. Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation loi, extract from letter 
of Johnson to Edward Everett, June 24, 1861. 

' He had spoken on preemption of public lands on January 13, and on a 
bill giving recompense for a ship confiscated during the war of 181 2, on Feb- 
ruary 4, and had made inquiry as to the policy of the administration in refer- 
ence to Oregon on February 26. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 23 

gation of the previous joint occupation of the Oregon 
country, and favored peace, as the Christian attitude.* 
Two months later, however,^ he broke from his party, 
declared that he believed that a state of war existed 
between Mexico and the United States, and that the 
territory of the United States had been invaded. He 
would have voted against the annexation of Texas, but 
did not think that his country was the aggressor in the 
war. He uttered these views, not only on the floor of 
the Senate, but also in a public meeting In Monument 
Square in Baltimore on May 23.^ He showed his loose 
construction views, by advocating action in emergencies 
when the constitution was silent.^ In the latter part 
of June, a resolution, introduced by Johnson, passed the 
Senate, calling on the Secretary of War to report whether 
any individual had been authorized to raise volunteers. 
President Polk sent for Johnson and had a frank con- 
ference with him on the evening of July 6, reading him 
copies of the papers showing the plans of a cam.paign 
into California. Polk said that the publication of these 
papers "would probably defeat our objects and be most 
prejudicial to public interest," as exciting the "jealousy 
of England and France." Johnson agreed with Polk 
as to this and said he "regretted that he had not known 
more on the subject, before he moved the resolution." 
He further advised that the call be not answered and 
said that, "if any thing was said about it In the Senate, 
he would take pleasure in stating that he had seen the 
papers and deemed It improper that the call should be 

* Vide speech also of April 16. 

^ On May 5 and May 12, he had spoken on preemption claims, and on June 
29 he spoke in opposition to selling public lands at too low a price. 

• Scharf, Chron. of Baltimore 516. 

^Vide speech of June 5, Webster denied the right to take such action as 
that of Gen. Grimes, whom Johnson defended for calling for troops in May. 



24 REVERDY JOHNSON 

answered."^ Johnson was not called on to make this 
statement, however. His only other speech on the Mexi- 
can question at that session was one of some length, 
delivered on August 5, in which he "ably advocated" 
Benton's motion on an indemnity.^ 

During July, he was active in the discussion of the 
tariff bill." He opposed the lowering of protective du- 
ties and on the i8th, in a speech of three hours length, 
maintained that the bill would not bring in enough rev- 
enue. He denied that the citizen paid the tax, pointed 
to the prosperity which had followed the tariff of 1842, 
and maintained that Polk had carried Pennsylvania 
through a promise to support it. If the Federal Govern- 
ment has no power to lay protective duties, the States 
are industrially yet colonies, nor had there been a pro- 
test against the rightfulness of such duties from 1789 
to 1822. Johnson served on the Finance Committee and, 
both in the committee and on the floor of the house, 
protested against a hasty consideration of the bill.^^ 

At the next session of Congress, on January 7, 1847, 
he advocated successfully the printing of memorials from 
Louisiana, criticising its representatives as unfaithful 
to the State's interests because of their votes on the 
tariff bill. On March 4, speaking on reporting by con- 

* 2 Polk's Diary 13. 

' The speech is not extant. 

1" The only other subjects on which he spoke in the latter part of the ses- 
sion were the issue of treasury notes which he advocated on July i6, to avoid 
transportation of specie, the purchase of the toll bridges over the East Branch 
of the Potomac by the United States, which he successfully advocated on 
August 3, and the act disaffirming the laws of the territories of Iowa and 
Wisconsin granting banking privileges, which act he opposed in an elaborate 
argument on August 6. 

"Vide speech of July 6, and motion of July 28, to commit the bill to a 
select committee on raw materials, on which motion there was a tie vote, where- 
upon the vice president cast a negative vote. On July 27, Johnson also spoke 
on frauds on the revenue of the United States in the tariff bill. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 25 

tract, he contrasted the reports of the debates in the 
Senate with those in the House of Commons, to the 
disadvantage of the former. He opposed, on January 
19, a h'mitation on sale or devise for seven years of 
bounty lands, speaking in behalf of Maryland soldiers 
who might not wish to emigrate, and urging that it was 
better to run the risk that speculators should secure the 
land than that it should be eaten up by several years' 
taxes. In carrying on the war, he urged active meas- 
ures, and, on January 22,^- decried the use of militia, 
who choose their own officers, as the "least efficient, 
the most dangerous and expensive course," only suit- 
able for a "sudden crisis." So that the Mexicans, who 
had invaded our soil, might speedily be brought to terms, 
he favored large increase of the army, and the levying 
of additional taxes on tea, cofTee, etc.^^ On February 
6, he spoke again on the Mexican stituation. Polk 
asked an appropriation of two million dollars, to enable 
him to conclude a treaty of peace and Cass, as chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Relations, recom- 
mended that the amount be increased to three millions, 
and proposed a preamble to the measure setting forth 
the character of the war. Johnson felt that the war 
was just, but as a pacifier, he objected to a statement, to 
which "many high minded men in the Senate" could 
not agree, and which would drive these "brother Sena- 
tors" to vote against the bill, or to vote that a war was 
just, which they believed "illegally brought" on the 
country. He also felt that, as the reasons for going 
into a war have nothing to do with a declaration of 
peace, Cass's preamble needlessly increased the impedi- 

^* Johnson's speeches of January 22, sent to Annapolis, and February 9, 
were revised by him and appear in the appendix to the Globe, as did that of 
July 19, 1846. 

" As a good Whig, he wished the repeal of the subtreasury act. 



26 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ments to peace, by Insulting the public opinion of Mexico, 
declaring her a causeless aggressor. The bill also showed 
the "white feather," by proposing to buy a peace, while 
"a nation engaged in a war — just or unjust — is in a 
condition in which every consideration demands that 
it should be brought to a successful and honorable ter- 
mination." He was emphatic in his attack on the ad- 
ministration for inefficiency in its military policy and 
for its permitting Santa Anna to return to Mexico, as 
well as for its "project of terminating the war by dis- 
membering a sister republic, which plan is so revolt- 
ing to my moral sense, to all my notions of propriety, 
honor and justice, that I would see my arms sink palsied 
to my side rather than to agree to it." The president 
brought on the war and if he refused to treat, or to 
conduct the war, as Congress wished, that body might 
give an opinion, which, if Polk rejects, will make him 
"liable to impeachment." The Democrats say that if 
the war goes on we may annex all Mexico and already 
it is proposed to acquire a territory equal to the original 
thirteen states. War would never have been approved 
by Congress had the object been stated " to get territory, 
not to vindicate the natural rights, not to drive oflf 
supposed or alleged invaders of our soil, not to protect 
our sister State of Texas, . . . . but in order 
to pay our own citizens the debts due them by Mexico, 
and in order to obtain New Mexico and 
California." His astute mind foresaw that the ques- 
tions likely to "arise on the admission of any new 
territory" might "cause the Union to totter to its very 
foundations." We have enough land and the South 
is in no danger, with the country's existing limits, but 
the "only way to keep back the northern conscience as 
to slavery" is to refuse to admit new territory. Already 



REVERDY JOHNSON 27 

the legislature of New York had adopted resolves that 
the North West Ordinance as to slavery should be ex- 
tended into any annexed territory and an Alabama Sen- 
ator had said that such extension was in "derogation 
of the United States Constitution" and "at war with 
the rights of slave States." Johnson, cheerfully, 
would vote for the prosecution of the war, but would 
"blush for my country, if she persisted in exactions 
upon a feeble and impoverished foe, which the world 
would justly anathematize as rapine and plunder." He 
felt that annexation of the proposed territory would be 
followed by "one of two things: civil war with all its 
inconceivable horrors, or disruption of the Union and 
a violated Constitution." The strong and prescient 
words of this speech were followed by another address, 
delivered on March i, upon the Wilmot Proviso, against 
the establishment of slavery in the territory proposed 
to be annexed.^* Johnson opposed the measure on con- 
stitutional grounds, since, by the "Spirit of the Con- 
stitution," the States are to be equal in all respects, 
and, consequently, the citizens of slave States should 
not be prohibited by Congress from settling with their 
slaves in acquired territory. If slavery could be pro- 
hibited, in a manner binding on the States formed from 
new territory, so it could be established there perma- 
nently. "I can vote for neither," said Johnson, for he 
was not a proslavery man, adding: "I believe and have 
ever believed since I was capable of thought, that 
slavery is a great affliction to any country where it 
prevails and, so believing, I can never vote for any 
measure calculated to enlarge its area, or to render more 

" In April 1873, Johnson, whom Henry Wilson describes as "an eminent 
lawyer, and statesman of recognized ability and large experience," wrote him 
that he would have voted against the Wilmot Proviso, had opportunity been 
given. "Rise and Fall of Slave Power" Vol. II p. 17. Vol. Ill p. 440. 



28 REVERDY JOHNSON 

permanent its duration. In some latitudes and for 
some agricultural staples, slave labor may be, for the 
master, the most valuable species of labor, though this 
I greatly doubt. In others, and particularly in my own 
State, I am convinced that it is the very dearest species 
of labor and, in all, as far as natural wealth and power 
and happiness are concerned, I am persuaded, it admits 
of no comparison with the labor of freemen and above 
all, disguise it as we may, if the laws of population shall 
not be changed by Providence, or man's nature shall 
not be changed, it is an institution, sooner or later, 
pregnant with fearful peril." So believing, he had early 
emancipated the slaves, whom he had inherited from 
his father, and did not agree with the South Carolinians 
in claiming that there was a "conservative influence of 
slavery on our free political institutions." Yet he 
showed the nervous sensitiveness on the negro question 
always displayed in the South, attributed much of the 
strength of the proslavery sentiment, especially in 
Maryland, to the efforts of political abolitionists and 
insisted that the North must leave the question to be 
settled by southern men exclusively. 

When Congress met in December, 1847, Johnson's posi- 
tion was established as one of the leading members of 
the Senate. In his first speech on December 30, he 
asked for the number of those who died of disease and 
who were killed in Mexico, maintaining that the great 
mortality which had prevailed was due to the lack of 
the same degree of discipline among volunteers as among 
regular troops and, therefore, urging that the regular 
army be increased, rather than that more volunteers 
be raised. On January 10, 1848, he began an important 
speech on the ten regiment bill, which he concluded with 
an eloquent peroration on the following day. Johnson 



REVERDY JOHNSON 29 

had come into the Senate, ''differing with the adminis- 
tration on almost every subject of our public civil policy" 
and his experience in that body had "more and more 
strengthened and confirmed" the differences between 
him and the Democratic party, on all questions but the 
war. "I believe," he said, "they misapprehend the true 
policy of the country and fundamentally err upon great 
and vital points of constitutional power." It is inter- 
esting to observe that he spoke of the conditions in the 
civil service as bad, because "bred in the corruption of 
the motto of the political freebooter that the spoils 
belong to the victor." He discussed the Texan question^^ 
from 1834 ^rid defended our claim to the Rio Grande 
as a boundary, maintaining that the war was just and 
honorable and that the United States had a just cause 
for war. They were right in striking the first blow in 
self-defense, because of the hostile acts of Mexico in 
mustering an army and marching "with the avowed pur- 
pose of taking forcible possession" of the disputed terri- 
tory. After a vigorous description of the horrors of war 
and our wickedness in waging war, if it be not a just 
one, he said that, though the nation had given Polk 
all the power he wanted and there have been great vic- 
tories, yet there is no peace. Deluded with the idea 
"that peace was to be obtained without the effusion of 
blood," Polk's "ostentatious" vigor had given Taylor 
and Scott such small forces that they could not properly 
follow up their victories. '^ War should be carried on 
in the heart of Mexico, till that country agreed to terms 
of peace, by which we may obtain "vindication of our 

'"' On June 30, he said we should adopt a treaty instead of resolves of an- 
nexation. 

'*The administration had relied too much on volunteers, forgetting that 
" the expense of a regular force is much less and their efficiency infinitely greater, 
above all that the sacrifice of human life is less." 



30 REVERDY JOHNSON 

violated honor and indemnity for our heretofore violated 
rights," but not a dollar should be spent to "annihilate 
the nationality of Mexico, or forcibly to dismember 
her territory." He proposed confiscation of Mexican 
revenues to pay the United States army and advocated 
a treaty, placing the Rio Grande as a boundary. "If 
there be any national crime more crying and enormous in 
the opinion of all Christendom," said Johnson, "it is 
the forcible dismemberment of the territory of a weaker 
nation." Annexation was also sure to lead to the dis- 
cussion of slavery, a "subject which no Southern man 
on this floor, when he can avoid it, desires to discuss." 
"The Southern States owe it to themselves, one and all 
of them, to stand on their own rights, to vindicate their 
own equality and, exclusively at their own time and 
without the interference of others, to meddle in their own 
way with this peculiar institution," interference with 
which may lead to "deadly conflict or amicable sepa- 
ration. "^^ 

Although he attacked the administration, he opposed 
on April 28 a bill appointing a board to investigate 
Californian claims, because it named the members of the 
board and did not leave the appointment to the Presi- 
dent. Johnson felt no alarm from the "tendency of the 
times to curtail the legislative and enlarge the executive 
power." Both power of appointment and of veto must 
be placed in the hands of the President. The United 
States could not have existed but for the veto power. 
"What more than anything else prevents the successful 

^' On May 8, Johnson spoke, urging delay in the question of Yucatan and 
on June 30, he defended a bill for the relief of men who had contracted with 
Texas to build war vessels. The United States were boimd by honor and 
justice to pay them. On July 7, he spoke on extra allowance to paymasters 
and on the claims of citizens, many of whom were Marjdanders, against Mexico. 
On August II, he spoke on Mexican claims. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 3 1 

assaults of popular passion upon the guarantees of the 
constitution, except the knowledge that there exists in 
the government one man who can stop it until the ques- 
tion is submitted to the sober good sense, better thought, 
and matured consideration of the people?" Yet John- 
son, on May 12, bitterly opposed the quasi-usurpation 
of Tyler, in vetoing the bank bill, and of Polk, who 
could not be reelected, in vetoing the river and harbor 
bill and the French spoliation bill. Would the Demo- 
cratic senators, to whom the executive lash had been 
applied, have selected Polk for the presidency as the 
convention, that "political excrescence" did? Why had 
not he sent in the nominations for positions in the army?^* 
The fact that Jackson had induced the Senate to ex- 
punge its resolution censuring him showed the "over- 
shadowing influence and power of a President."^^ 

He eulogized Taney for his diligence, character, and 
industry, on April 18, when urging legislation to prevent 
delay in hearing cases by the United States Supreme 
Court. The judges of this court are old and should 
be so, for young men are rash, but their age makes 
them feebler. He praised them for the Herculean labor 
they perform and had heard them praised in England. 
Johnson opposed the election of Judges by the people. 
It was a "system productive of nothing but unmixed 
mischief" to have candidates nominees of a political 
convention. Judges will then strive for reelection, while 
a man once upon the bench should never again go into 
politics. In this speech, Johnson showed his love for 
the nation, by saying: "Loss of freedom is alone to be 
compared to the loss of the Union, nor, indeed, can 
freedom be lost, if the Union is in good faith preserved." 

^* Vide speech of May 9. 
" Vide speech of May 10. 



32 REVERDY JOHNSON 

The bill for the organization of the territory of Oregon 
brought Johnson several times to the floor of the Senate. 
On June 23, he objected to the prohibition of slavery 
therein, whether the settlers wish it or not. On July 
10, he felt the overshadowing importance of the presi- 
dential election, 2" and regretted that the slavery ques- 
tion could not have been postponed. Events showed 
the growth of moral degeneracy through the Southern 
section." The annexation of Texas and the bungling 
of the Mexican war caused "our present mournful con- 
dition," and, although he hoped that good sense would 
avert disaster, he felt that "the array of State against 
State and citizen against citizen was a spectacle which 
he regarded as ominous of fatal results to the Union." 
"If these signs continue to increase, the separation of 
the States is inevitable." "When the day shall come, 
when the whole northern territory of the United States 
shall be admitted as States and be represented" in the 
Senate, Johnson "was aware that slavery would no 
longer be permitted to exist in the South." He attacked 
Van Buren and his policy of slave restriction and found 
in the Constitution no power of prohibiting slavery in 
the territories. He wished, from his heart, "that no 
African had ever been brought to this country, but that 
our land was exclusively peopled by freemen." Though 
"slavery was a great evil," it was a "domestic institu- 
tion, in some respects mutually advantageous" both to 
slave and to master. Maryland had found that, through 
the instigation of Northern men evils came from manu- 
mitting slaves and had restricted the right to emanci- 
pate. Northern men had also supplied the South with 

-"On July 3, speaking on the adjournment of Congress, he attacked the 
sketches of General Cass sent out by the Democrats, one for the north and the 
other for the south. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 33 

slaves, and part of the responsibility for the evils of 
slavery rested on them. Compromise now should settle 
this "agitating question, at once and forever," or it 
would be "settled by blood or separation." Yet there 
was a "greater evil than disunion and that was self 
degradation." The Northern men must not "cast on the 
South a conviction" that they regarded Southern men 
as inferior to themselves. In a third speech, on July 
26, upon the Oregon bill, Johnson suggested a reference 
of the slavery question to the Supreme Court, as the 
only amicable way of adjusting a question which " threat- 
ened the honor and interests of the South." With con- 
siderable heat, he claimed that northern men had in- 
sulted Southerners in this debate and the men of the 
South would rather yield their lives, than "do the bid- 
ding of the North," but would bow to the Supreme 
Court, whose decision would be acquiesced in by all. 
The South was willing to abide by the law and there 
would "not be found, in the whole Southern bar, a 
lawyer who would not give, gratuitously, his services to 
a black man to free him from slavery, while there was a 
reasonable ground for the application." The Northern 
States had only recently abolished slavery and Con- 
necticut had scarcely become a free State, while neither 
that State, New York, nor New Jersey allowed negroes 
to vote. The Free State men should have offered to 
extend the Missouri Compromise line.^^ 

Johnson's only other action of note at this session 
was the prCvSentation of a memorial, on April 11, for 
an appropriation for the establishment of institutions 
for instruction in science, engineering, agriculture and 
mechanics. He urged the favorable consideration of 
this request and maintained its constitutionality. 

-' On August 10, he spoke for a fourth time on the bill, to the same purpose. 



34 REVERDY JOHNSON 

At the session of 1848 and 1849, Johnson's activity 
was less important^^ and, on March 9, he sent in his 
resignation of his senatorship, as he had been appointed 
Attorney-General by President Taylor. 

When Zachary Taylor was elected president in 1848, 
a bill was pending for the establishment of the Depart- 
ment of the Interior, and certain senators were induced 
to vote for it and thus secure its passage upon repre- 
sentations made them that, if a new secretaryship were 
created, Taylor would be able to find a place among 
his heads of departments for Reverdy Johnson,-^ for 
whom they had a deep admiration. ^^ Johnson held the 
position of attorney-general until Taylor's death, in the 
summer of 1850. His opinions are of little interest.^^ 

In general he believed in following the doctrine of 

^2 On December i8, he opposed allowing the Secretary of the Navy and the 
Postmaster General to have full power to contract with the Panama railroad, 
because of the danger of exorbitant rates. On January i8 and 24, he attacked 
a bill to make Captain Percival pay the expense of a naturalist, who was em- 
ployed without authority on an exploring expedition, since the naturalist had 
brought home minerals, which the United States holds, and rare seeds which 
had been distributed throughout the country by members of Congress. On 
January 26, he again spoke favoring the payment of Texan debts for building 
men of war. Texas can not now lay import duties, and her lands may not be 
worth anything for years, while the United States took over the vessels. On 
March 4, he opposed a bill extending the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus 
to the territory of California on the ground that the bill was not necessary, 
since the extension of the laws of the United States to the territory will cover 
the ground. 

2^ See remarks of H. S. Foote in Proceedings of Bench and Bar after Johnson's 
death. 

^* Wm. H. Seward (2 Seward's Seward 103) wrote to Thurlow Weed on 
March 4, that Johnson for Attorney-General "is very well." On February 
28, 1847, Seward had written Weed from Washington (2 Seward's Seward 38) 
that Johnson sought to know whether New York would be content to let 
Mangum, a slave holder, be Vice President. Johnson seemed to Seward to 
fax'or McLean. 

-'^Opinions of the Attorney-General, pp. 1993-2092. 7 E.xec. Docs., 31st 
Cong. 2nd Sess. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 35 

stare decisis with reference to the opinions of his prede- 
cessors, though he decided differently from them, when 
he saw good cause to do so. His most interesting deci- 
sion, especially in view of his later diplomatic career, 
is one against allowing the purchase and fitting out in 
New York of a steamer by the German government, 
as an act contrary to the neutrality law, inasmuch as 
the ulterior purpose of Germany was to use the vessel 
in the war against Denmark. In many respects, John- 
son was admirably adapted to be attorney general and 
it may be regretted that he had not greater opportunity 
to distinguish himself in that office. Judge Dennis 
rightly says his highest fame will always rest "upon his 
achievements as a constitutional lawyer." He early 
constructed for himself a system of constitutional inter- 
pretation, to which he held with marvellous consistency 
throughout the shifting scenes of his life, and so wide 
was the extent of his exposition of the Federal Constitu- 
tion that it would be possible to construct almost a 
complete commentary on that great document from his 
published speeches and addresses. 

Crawford, the Secretary of War, had been attorney 
for the Galphin claim against the Federal government 
and received half of the award, and, as Johnson said 
the law of 1848 allowed interest, Crawford received 
$94,000. This produced a scandal. Crawford said that 
he never told Meredith, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
nor Johnson, of his connection with the case, but merely 
urged a prompt decision, and Johnson said that he had 
no knowledge of Crawford's interest. The papers in 
the case showed the interest, so Johnson confessed to 
a cursory examination of the matter. A resolution was 
introduced into the House of Representatives, disap- 
proving of Johnson's action, and Taylor discussed with 



36 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Thurlow Weed replacing all three cabinet officers by 
others, but the President's death put an end to the 
difficulty.2'5 

After retiring from the attorney generalship, Johnson 
returned to the active practice of the law and, for a 
decade, but fleeting glimpses are caught of him. In 
1850, he opposed Edwin M. Stanton as attorney in the 
well-known Wheeling Bridge Case.^^ He had previously 
argued with John B. Henderson against Henry D. Gilpin, 
the case in which the Woodsworth planing machine 
patent of 1828 was involved, ^^ and the case of Waring 
V. Clarke, in which he found J. J. Crittenden against 
him and which foreshadowed the later decisions as to 
admiralty jurisdiction. ^^ In 1854, he was associated 
with Thaddeus Stevens in securing a decision in favor 
of the validity of the McCormick reaper patent,^" and 
two years later, he took part in a second suit between 
the same parties, having Abraham Lincoln and E. M. 
Dickerson as his associates and Edwin M. Stanton as 
one of his opponents. ^^ The case was first tried in the 
Circuit Court in Ohio before Judge McLean, and, being 
appealed to the Supreme Court, was heard there in 1857.'^ 

26 See I Rhodes U. S. 202-204, i Weed Autobiography 589 (on p. 587 Weed 
wrote that he went to Washington when Taylor was inaugurated and "called 
upon the Attorney-General, Reverdy Johnson, with whom I had long been 
intimate who received me so coldly that I did not even sit down." This is an 
unusual statement, for Johnson was usually very geniaJ). 

2^ Pennsylvania v. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Co., 9 Howard 649. On 
May 28 and 29, 1851, he argued in the United States Circuit Court in New 
York in a case concerning the property of the Methodist Church. 

28 4 How. 646. 

" (1847) S How. 341. 

'" Seymour v. McCormick 16. How. 480. 

31 George Harding was with Stanton in the Circuit Court and Henry R. 
Selden and P. H. Watson were also against Johnson in the Supreme Court. 
Seymour v. McCormick 19 How. 96, appeal from 6 McLean 529. 

3- Dickerson, in the Proceedings of the Bench and Bar after Johnson's death, 
referred to this case argued, by Johnson, when he " was in the maturity of his 



REVERDY JOHNSON 37 

In 1855, he was engaged with J. M. Campbell in the 
important cases of Williams v. Gibbs and Gooding v. 
Oliver. ^3 In 1854, he was employed, together with Lord 
Cairns, as counsel in London to argue a claim before 
the Joint English and American commission established 
under the treaty of 1854,^"* and while there he received 
much attention from public men and from members of 
the English bar. Shortly after his return from England, 
he became one of the counsel for the defense in the great 
Dred Scott case before the Federal Supreme Court. ^"^ 
Johnson illustrated a conspicuous characteristic of his 
character, by entering this case without any fees. The 
other counsel upon both sides also served without fees 
in this case. This was not an isolated instance of John- 
son's serving without remuneration. Although he was 
said to receive larger fees than any other member of 
the American bar, when either his sense of justice or 
the presence of some nice constitutional or legal point 
was noticed in the case, he frequently volunteered his 
services and kept up this generous practice until the 
last days of his life. The Dred Scott case was heard 
twice, and Senator Geyer of Missouri, a native of Mary- 
land, was with Johnson at both hearings. Against them 
was Montgomery Blair, with whom George Ticknor 
Curtis was joined at the second hearing, on December 
18, 1856. Years afterwards, when Johnson was dead, 
Curtis said:^*^ 

strength and with a reputation secured and safe," and said that Andrew John- 
son was concerned in the case also. 

^^17 Howard 239 & 274. He was for appellees and secured a reversal of the 
Court below. The case arose out of a claim for fitting out of an expedition 
about 18 16 to attempt to secure Mexican independence. 

^ 86 Eclectic 502. 

^ Vide 2 Nicholay & Hay's Lincoln 64. 

'^In remarks published in Proceedings of Bench and Bar after Johnson's 
death. 



38 REVERDY JOHNSON 

''It was the forcible presentation of the southern view of 
our Constitution, in respect to the relation to slavery to the 
territories and of the territories to the nation, that contributed 
more than anything else to bring about the decision that was 
made in this case. I believe that he held those opinions with 
entire sincerity; at any rate, he enforced them with great power. 
Those who were opposed to him (and I happened to be one of 
them) felt the force of his arguments and foresaw what their 
effect would be on a majority of the Court." 

In his defense of the Court, and particularly of Chief 
Justice Taney," for this decision, Johnson was always 
most emphatic, 3^ and the only time in his senatorial 
service during the Civil War Period, when he lost con- 
trol of himself and made a bitter personal attack upon 
his antagonists was in defence of his friend, the Chief 
Justice, of whom after his death it was proposed to 
provide a bust by federal appropriation.'^ 

"For example in a letter to a public meeting at Baltimore on March 6' 
1858, Tyler's Taney, p 385. In this letter, which is also printed in B. R. 
Curtis's Life 237, Johnson pleaded that, if McLean and Curtis gave separate 
opinions, so should all other judges. 

'^ 3 Scharf Md. 309. On October 13, 1864, Johnson spoke at a meeting 
of the Bench and Bar of Baltimore upon the occasion of Taney's death and 
defended him as historically right in saying a negro had no rights, etc. We 
saw in Taney, Johnson said, "everything that characterized a good and hu- 
mane citizen We knew him to be humane, to be charitable, 

to be a Christian gentleman." See also Tyler's Taney, pp. 492, 496. 

'' 2 Rhodes U. S. 255 & 269. Ex-Senator Bradbury told Rhodes that north- 
em Democrats in 1857 said that Johnson induced Taney to give the "political" 
decision. Pike wrote to the Tribune of Johnson that "no man is so intimate 
with and no man possesses so much influence over the Chief Justice as he," 
and Rhodes says that Johnson's social relations with Taney were such that his 
views could be enforced in private conversation, but gives no proof that this 
was done. Judge Brewer (98 Atlantic Monthly 590) relates a story of Johnson 
showing another side of his character, to the eflfect that once, when "employed 
to defend parties in South Carolina, charged with cruelty to negroes," he "was 
so shocked by the revelations of the character of his clients that, in the midst 
of the trial, he abandoned the case and left it to the care of junior counsel." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 39 

He possessed a marvellous power of making and keep- 
ing friends in both political camps, and, when Brooks 
assaulted Charles Sumner, sent promptly a message of 
"kindest remembrance" to the latter, asking concerning 
his condition and expressing the *' highest regard for 
him as a friend, though differing with him on the excit- 
ing question of the day.*° When Mr. Justice B. R. 
Curtis, one of the minority in the Dred Scott decision, 
resigned from the bench of the Supreme Court in 1857, 
Johnson wrote him twice, expressing his regret*^ and 
adding that: "It would much increase the true con- 
cern of losing you to the bench, if I thought that I was 
not often to meet you. It is in all sincerity that I 
assure you that much of the gratification I have had in 
attending the Supreme Court, was that you were of 
it. ""2 At the break-up of the Whig party, in 1 854, John- 
son affiliated himself with the Democrats, "'^ and, in 1856, 
he is said to have made an eloquent address in favor 
of the election of Buchanan to the Presidency. ^^ 

Although absent from a dinner at the Maryland Insti- 
tute, on September 18, 1855, given in celebration of the 
anniversary of the adoption of the constitution of the 
United States, Johnson sent a letter to be read on that 
occasion, eulogizing the constitution thus: 

"The good and great men, who framed it, saw that without 
that, or some equivalent government, the useful union of the 

*" 3 Pierce's Sumner 496. 

^^ From Saratoga N. Y. on September 1 1 and from Baltimore on September 2 2. 

*^ I B. R. Curtis's Life pp. 260 & 261. The social side of Johnson's nature 
is also shown from the fact that, on February 17, 1859, he acted as one of the 
managers from the citizens of Washington at a ball to celebrate the peace of 
1815 with Great Britain. 2 Seward's Seward 358. 

*^ Without fully identifying himself with them. 

** See Forney's remarks in Proceedings of Bench and Bar after Johnson's 
death. 



40 REVERDY JOHNSON 

United States could not be preserved, or the prosperity and 
power inseparable from such a Union attained. The result of 
their deliberations, conducted as these were, with a pure patriot- 
ism and an enlightened spirit, has made us what we are, a 
happy, a free, and a great nation." 

He opposed the Know Nothing party, then growing 
in strength, and, arguing in behalf of religious freedom, 
said that Taney was a proof that the Roman Catholic 
Church is not dangerous to American freedom. The 
rules of naturalization may be too lax, but to exclude 
naturalized citizens from office is a clear violation of 
the constitution and carries with it national dishonor."*^ 
In the Democratic party, he was never fully at home, 
and, after the close of the Civil War, he said: "I never 
really was a Democrat," but, while he was in the ranks 
of that party, he followed Douglas and was an advocate 
of popular or squatter sovereignty.^'' We have seen him 
expressing views of that character in the Senatorial 
debates at the close of the Mexican War and he devel- 
oped the same views in a pamphlet, which he wrote in 
1859.''^ This pamphlet was issued in anticipation of the 
Democratic presidential convention at Charleston to urge 
the readoption of the platform of 1856. If the party 
abandon popular sovereignty, it will be a stain on its 
good name, will cause the people to cease to trust it, 
and even may lead to "calamity .... beyond 
remedy, perpetual and fatal." John Brown and Seward 
had shown the need of democratic harmony to prevent 

■•* James Raymond "Political" p. 326. 

*^ Howell Cobb wrote Buchanan on August 4, 1856, that it was expected that 
Johnson would "be out" in a letter, supporting the Democratic ticket. Corre- 
spondence of Toombs, Stephens & Cobb 2 Am. Hist. Ass. Rept. 1911, p. 379. 

*'' "Remarks on Popular Sovereignty, as maintained and denied respectively 
by Judge Douglas and Attorney General Black by a Southern Citizen." Vide 
2 Am. Hist. Ass. Rept. 191 1, 448. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 4 1 

the extinction of slavery. Johnson denied that the 
Supreme Court had touched upon the matter at all in 
the Dred Scott decision, which he vigorously defends, 
and, with great adroitness and acumen, pressed the point 
that the decision had merely denied the right of Congress 
to restrict slavery in the territories of the United States. 
The question as to the right of territorial inhabitants 
to regulate, or restrict it, had not been touched, and, as 
laws concerning slavery were different in the several 
slave States, there must be some authority to frame local 
regulations, or hopeless confusion would result. Slavery 
is a creature of "positive law" and was not named in 
the Constitution, because the "owners of such property 
were not then so sensitive as they are now," when the 
"assaults" hurled at them by a "body of frenzied or 
knavish citizens" of the Northern States, had deter- 
mined them to maintain and vindicate the institution 
upon social, moral, religious, and political grounds." 
Unless there was power in the territorial legislature, 
however, to exclude slavery, it might be made per- 
petual against the wishes of the people. 

In the turbulent local politics of Baltimore, Johnson 
took his part. He joined a committee of citizens to 
urge the governor not to call out the military forces 
on election day in 1857."^ Iri i860, the new law, pro- 
viding that the police force of the City should be taken 
from under the control of the municipal authorities and 
placed under commissioners appointed by the State gov- 
ernment, came before the Court of Appeals for decision 
as to its constitutionality. Johnson, with other eminent 
lawyers,'*^ defended the law. In their argument and in 

*^ 3 Scharf, Md. 260, p. 276. In November 1859 he sat on one occasion in 
the City Reform Committee. 

« Scharf, Chron. of Balto. 575. S. Teackle VVallis, J. M. Campbell and W. 
H. Norris. 



42 REVERDY JOHNSON 

the Opinion of the Court, the whole relation of munici- 
palities to the State was elaborately set forth. ^"^ Of 
other important cases before the Courts we catch 
glimpses, and find him defending a Naval Officer before 
a court of inquiry,^^ winning an important case in refer- 
ence to Arkansas swamp lands, and gaining great famil- 
iarity with government land grants in the northwest 
and in California. 

Though he became a communicant church member 
late in life, Johnson was a deeply religious man, and, 
in a trip to San Francisco in i860, he was induced to 
deliver an address on October 18, at the dedication of 
the Church of the Advent, upon the "Influence of 
Christianity on the Individual and Social Condition of 
Man." The address was printed in pamphlet form," 
and shows a profound confidence in the authenticity 
and truth of the Scriptures, the power of Christ's life, 
and the complete triumph of Christianity in the future. 
The power of the United States to assist in the progress 
of religion is "manifestly dependent .... on 
our remaining a united people." 

^^ A. H. Garland in His Experiences in the Supreme Court of the U. S., p. 5, 
states that, on December 26, i860, Johnson proposed his name for admission 
to the bar of that Court. After the admission, Garland four times rose to 
visit the Senate, but Johnson asked him to stay and hear the speeches. Finally, 
Johnson took him to the Senate and procured him a good seat. Garland also 
tells a story of Johnson's berating a man who had recently published one of 
Jolmson's letters showing that he had been inconsistent. "Make him produce 
the original letter," said Badger, who was present. "Why?" asked John- 
son. Badger replied: "No one on earth can read it but yourself and you can 
read it to suit yourself." 

" In 1857, Captain W. K. Latimer. 

^^ San Francisco i860, pp. 18. He went there by way of Panama. See 
Md. Hist. Mag. for September, 1914. 



CHAPTER III 

The Struggle in Maryland to Preserve the Union 

In the presidential campaign of i860, Johnson natu- 
rally supported Douglas. From Washington on May 
19, he wrote to the Chairman of a Douglas Meeting to 
be held in New York three days later, approving of the 
action of the New York delegates at Charleston and 
urging the defeat of Lincoln, who is "reeking with the 
grossest heresies of political abolitionism," and the sup- 
port of popular sovereignty. Johnson had argued the 
Dred Scott case twice, as the friend of the South, and 
firmly asserted that squatter sovereignty was not only 
not decided by the court, but was neither argued, nor 
in any way presented for decision. He "never sup- 
posed that there existed in any part of the civilized 
world a government where slavery existed, in which 
there was not somewhere authority to abolish it." A 
few days later, Johnson delivered a stirring address at 
a Douglas meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in which 
he said that the Democratic party was now the only 
national one, since the Whig party no longer existed.^ 
Speaking in that place sacred to liberty and to union, 
he said that slavery was the "sole cause of peril 
disturbing the fraternal feeling which our 
fathers entertained." He held slavery to be a local 
institution, with which Congress should not interfere, 

1 Speech of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland delivered before the 
political friends of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, 
Boston, on Thursday, June 7, i860, to which is added the letter of the Hon. 
Reverdy Johnson to the Chairman of the Douglas Meeting in New York on 
the 22nd of May, i860. Baltimore i860, pp. 16. 

43 



44 REVERDY JOHNSON 

and considered that the Kansas Nebraska bill is praise- 
worthy and constitutional, while secession is traitorous.* 
After Lincoln's election and the secession of South 
Carolina, Johnson, without a moment's hesitation, took 
his place among the foremost advocates of union and 
opponents of secession. This position he never left. 
At the close of the war, he stated that he never had 
referred to the Confederates but as "traitors, rebels or 
insurrectionists." No man could have been fiercer than 
he in his denunciation of that "mischievous heresy of 
secession." In December, i860, in concluding his argu- 
ment in an important case in the Supreme Court, he 
said:' "This may be the last time this court will sit 
in peaceful judgment on the Constitution, as acknowl- 
edged and obeyed by all." He hoped heaven would 
avert this calamity, but, if it should come, he felt that 
the record of the court was secure. On January 10, 
1 861, a meeting of the friends of the Union was held 
in the large hall of the Maryland Institute, on which 
occasion, Johnson delivered the principal address, a long 
and eloquent oration, breathing the spirit of fervent 
loyalty to the Union.'* The argument made here was 
expressed by him on other occasions in different forms, 
but the substance ever remained the same. In his char- 
acteristically long sentences, he discussed the history of 
our union of States, which carried on the revolutionary 
war and which the fathers intended to be perpetual. 

2 John A. Cobb, a son of Howell Cobb, wrote from the Gilmor House, Balti- 
more on June 20, i860 (2 Am. Hist. Ass. Kept., 191 1, p. 483), that the Brecken- 
ridge "speakers speak from the balcony of that hotel, the Douglasites from 
Reverdy Johnson's house which is just above, where George Saunders is keep- 
ing open house and Douglas men can stay gratis." 

^ 2 Moore's Rebellion Record Document 274. 

* Proceedings and Speeches, Baltimore 1861, pp. 20. Johnson's speech is 
also reported in 2 Moore's Rebellion Record 133. J. C. Legrand published a 
reply. Important letters of this period from Johnson to Van Buren are pub- 
lished in Md. Hist. Mag. for September, 19 14. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 45 

Under the Confederation, a league of States existed, 
lacking means to enforce what powers were committed 
to it, even more than it lacked adequacy in the grant 
of powers. In the Constitution there was made a grant 
of sufficient powers and of means to enforce them. 
Under the power to repress insurrection, the President 
may prevent secession. South Carolina, "that gallant 
state of vast pretentions but little power, though, appar- 
ently in her own conceit, able to meet the world in arms," 
is venturing to act upon the same fancy as in 1830 
when Webster defeated Hayne in the constitutional 
debate, and is perpetrating treason. "The offending 
citizen cannot rely, as a defence, on State power. His 
responsibility is to the United States alone. His alle- 
giance, his paramount allegiance, out of which the respon- 
sibility springs as to all these powers, is to that govern- 
ment alone. His State cannot legally protect him, or 
stand in his place. Her prior sovereignty as to this 
was extinguished by the act of the people, in adopting 
the Constitution, never again to be resumed under that 
instrument." The Constitution is not "fatally impo- 
tent," through lack of coercive power. "It is true, it 
contains no power to declare war against a State, but 
it has every power for the execution of the laws and the 
enforcement of their penalties. It goes against the indi- 
vidual offender. It makes no appeal to the State power 
to protect it. For that end, it is self-sustaining, it is 
its own protector. If the State places herself between 
the United States and the offending citizen and attempts 
to shield him by force of arms, it is she who declares 
war upon the United States, not the United States upon 
her. In such a contingency, the force used by the latter 
and which they have a clear right to use is not in attack 
but in defense, not war but the rightful vindication of 



46 REVERDY JOHNSON 

rights against unjustifiable and illegal assault." The 
Federal government does not coerce the State, but the 
State's citizens and whether one or all of these must 
be punished, makes no difference in the legal position 
of the national authorities. Lincoln is impotent for 
harm and so there was no present excuse for secession. 
South Carolina gets more from the Union than she 
gives to it and would be weak out of it. The Border 
States should get together and induce the adoption of 
amendments to the Constitution, safeguarding the South 
against the danger of attack from Northern abolitionists. 
In his glowing peroration, he urged the reenforcement 
and defense of Fort Sumter at all hazards. 

Shortly after this meeting, Governor Hicks appointed 
Johnson one of five delegates from Maryland to the 
Peace Congress at Washington.^ In that Congress, he 
was "conspicuous by his earnest and eloquent efforts 
to avert the threatening calamities of civil war by meas- 
ures of conciliation"^ and served on a committee of one 
from each State to report what they "deem right, neces- 
sary and proper to restore harmony and preserve the 
Union," in which committee he advocated earnestly the 
proposed compromise amendments to the Constitution, 
in the hope that they would be satisfactory to the South.' 

When the Committee reported favoring an establish- 
ment of slavery in all territory south of 36° 30', and Curtis 
expressed the fear that all future acquired lands would 
be south of that parallel, Johnson, on February 16, 

s The others were A. W. Bradford, Wm. T. Goldsborough, J. W. Crisfield 
and J. D. Roman. 3 Scharf's Md. 380. On February 21, Johnson, being ill, 
sent a proxy to Bradford. 

« 86 Eclectic 502. 

' Henry Watterson, in Cosmopolitan for March 1909 at p. 364, wrote that 
Johnson and Bell, at the time of Lincoln's inauguration, believed that there 
would be no war and that the troubles would be tided over. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 47 

moved to insert the word "present" before the word 
territory, and added that he thought that "no territory 
will be acquired hereafter without great unanimity." 
As he was physically unable to speak, he asked that the 
discussion be deferred.^ 

On the next day^ Johnson said, "There ought to be 
no ambiguity in a Constitutional provision," and so his 
amendment was wise, although the doctrine of the Dred 
Scott case would probably confine the application of the 
unamended proposition to existing territory, Johnson 
held that the Supreme Court said that "territories" 
meant those existing when the Constitution was formed, 
and, while he thought the decision was wrong, he admitted 
that it was binding. He objected to inserting the 
word "future," as it would be odious to put words into 
the Constitution "which should go forth to the world 
as an indication that this government proposes to acquire 
new territory." If the Constitution had said "any," 
Taney would have been obliged to decide differently. 
The South had been beaten in the election and "we 
ought to acquiesce in the decision of the majority of the 
Convention and limit the amendment to "present terri- 
tory." The question should be settled, "fairly recog- 
nizing and acknowledging the rights of all," so that the 
Slave States "may remain brethren forever with the 
free States." We have now a "territory extensive 
enough to sustain two hundred millions of people, em- 
bracing almost every climate, fruitful in almost every 
species of production, rich in all the elements of national 
wealth, and governed by a Constitution that has raised 

* L. E. Chittenden's Report of the Debates and Proceedings of the Confer- 
ence Convention for Proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United 
States, p. 72. 

' Chittenden's report 82. 



48 REVERDY JOHNSON 

US to an elevation of grandeur that the world has never 
before witnessed." We should not separate on account 
of territory which we have not and do not want. If the 
amendment passes, it will be difificult to annex territory, 
since annexation can only come by treaty approved by 
four-fifths of the Senate.^" 

When Roger S. Baldwin of Connecticut objected to 
the method advocated for proposing amendments, John- 
son and Collamer replied that Congress may and should 
propose amendments, when asked by any State or con- 
siderable section of the Union. Johnson stated that the 
delegates "came on Virginia's invitation, who saw that 
the country was going to ruin." "The circumstances 
affecting the condition of the South which aroused her 
to that frenzy which falls on every patriotic mind when 
it witnesses a country going to destruction," led her to 
invite all the "States to join in obtaining a suitable 
adjustment. Something must be done. Our credit is 
gone." Steps must be taken "quickly or the new Pres- 
ident will have only States north of Mason and Dixon's 
line to govern, if he is to govern in peace." "I think 
there is no right of secession," but there is a "higher 
right," that of revolution, used when nine States adopted 
the Constitution. Seddon retorted: "they used the 
right of secession," and Johnson, disturbed from his 
usual serenity, answered: "I won't dispute about terms. 
In all such discussions. Heaven save me frorri a Virginia 
politician." Madison, in the Federalist, had said, how- 
ever, that if one section of the Union refused to recog- 
nize and protect the rights of another part, the latter 
had the right to go out. Some of the Southern States 
had already gone out. Does the North wish "us" to go 

*" Johnson would have preferred a two-thirds vote, in which a majority from 
both free and slave States should be included. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 49 

out? If not, he entreated the Northern delegates to 
grant us "what we are willing to stand upon." "At 
least, this will save the rest of the States to yourselves 
and to us" and settle the question of slave extension by 
dividing the territory. By this proposal, the South 
gives up rights under the Dred Scott decision and it is 
not certain that all territories south of the Missouri 
Compromise line will become Slave States. If nothing 
is done in the Convention, war must come. 

After an absence of several days on account of illness, 
Johnson voted on February 23, in the minority of the 
Maryland delegation with Mr. Crisfield, against Seddon's 
proposition that appointments to office south of 36° 30' 
be made on the recommendation of a majority of the 
Senators from the Slave States, those north of that 
parallel on the recommendation of the Senators from 
the free States.'^ On the same day, he spoke again 
on the acquisition of territory, which he thought the 
Dred Scott decision held was only possible as a pre- 
liminary to Statehood. He succeeded in inducing the 
Convention to add to the amendment that territory could 
only be acquired by treaty, a provision that it might 
also be acquired without treaty by discovery and for 
naval and commercial depots and transit routes. ^^ 

On February 27, just before the final adjournment of 
the Convention, Johnson offered a resolution that the 
passage of secession ordinances is an " event deeply to 
be deplored" and expressing the "earnest hope" that 
the seceding States may ' ' soon see cause to resume their 
honored places in this confederacy of States. Yet to 
the end that such return may be facilitated and from 
the conviction that the Union, being formed by the assent 

" Chittenden, p. 3^4. 
^^ Chittenden, p. 340. 



50 REVERDY JOHNSON 

of the people of the respective States and being com- 
patible only with freedom and the republican institutions 
guaranteed to each, cannot and ought not to be main- 
tained by force, we deprecate any effort by the Federal 
Government to coerce, in any form, the said States. to 
reunion or submission, as tending to irreparable breach 
and leading to incalculable ills, and we earnestly invoke 
the abstinence from all counsels or measures of com- 
pulsion towards them."^^ It was far too late for such 
an attempt at irenical settlement of the difficulties: in a 
week, Abraham Lincoln would be inaugurated as Presi- 
dent, in a few weeks more both parties would invoke 
the fierce arbitrament of war. Yet the Peace Confer- 
ence was not wholly fruitless, for it showed the country 
that peace was an impossible goal to reach except through 
war. 

Johnson had always favored moderate measures^* and 
had opposed the hanging of John Brown. The day for 
compromise, however, was past. Fort Sumter fell and 
the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment fought the mob in 
the Baltimore Streets. With a delegation of prominent 
Baltimoreans," Johnson came to Lincoln to learn if he 
meditated invasion of the South, and though the con- 
tents of Lincoln's confidential answer of April 24, that 
he intended merely to protect the capital, ^^ were speedily 
transmitted to the Confederate authorities, through 
Johnson's incautiousness, yet relations of cordial sup- 

" Chittenden, p. 449. 

"On July 29, 1861, S. S. Cox proposed that a peace commission of seven 
citizens be appointed, nominating on it Johnson with Edward Everett, Franklin 
B. Pierce, Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Thomas Ewing and James 
Guthrie. Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 314. 

15 Johnson, " a lawyer and statesman of fame and influence both at home 
and abroad." 4 Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, 164. 

1^ Johnson replied to Lincoln's letter: "In a word, all that your note sug- 
gests would be my purpose, were I intrusted with your high office." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 5 1 

port of Lincoln by Johnson were established for the 
time. This led Lincoln to request Johnson to answer 
Taney's opinion in Ex parte Merryman, as to the right 
of the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. 
Johnson, for once, differed with Taney and wrote a 
reply to him, in which, with great perspicacity, the con- 
stitutionality of Lincoln's act is defended. ^^ The duty 
of the President to suppress revolt and to cause the 
laws to be executed required him to use every legitimate 
means. Of the character and extent of the means 
needed to enforce the laws, Lincoln is to decide for 
himself, subject to his responsibility to the people and 
to Congress. The power to suspend the writ of habeas 
corpus is not a legislative one, and if the Constitution 
had intended to have left the power to Congress, it 
would have done so expressly. A state of quasi-war 
exists, the power in question is essentially a military 
one and, "under the Constitution of the United States, 
it is clear that, although the power to declare war Is 
vested solely in Congress, the conduct of the war Is 
solely with the President." Johnson always laid em- 
phasis upon the fact that, though the Congressional 
powers are enumerated in the Constitution, the Execu- 
tive power, which is vested in the President, is nowhere 
limited, and so, by fair Implication, may be considered 
to cover the means necessary, faithfully, to carry out 
the laws. If the President may not suspend the writ, 
he is made subordinate, not only "to the Supreme Court 
and to every one of Its justices, but also to every civil 
functionary of Federal, or State government, who has 
the right to issue the writ of habeas corpus, and the power 
of the President to suppress insurrection would be ren- 
dered ineffective. "In Maryland, for Instance, where 

" Reprinted in 2 Moore's Rebellion Record, Docs. p. 185. 



52 REVERDY JOHNSON 

It is believed disaffection to the Government, to a cer- 
tain extent, prevails, and sympathy for the rebels is 
entertained," the writ of habeas corpus may be "exer- 
cised so as seriously to disconcert the successful progress 
of our army," unless the fact be recognized that, in time 
of war, these civil guarantees have no place. Lincoln 
was serving the people faithfully, "with all the ability 
he possesses in the crisis of the government," and John- 
son hoped that, when he retires from the Presidency, 
he may leave the people in the "peaceful and happy 
enjoyment of an unbroken Union." 

On May 7, Johnson addressed the Brengle Home 
Guard, a Union Military Company of Frederick, on 
the occasion of the presentation to them in the court 
house yard of a flag by a number of ladies of that town.^* 
On May 8, he wrote S. P. Chase from Frederick, using 
a Union envelope, as the only one he could find in the 
town, and telling him that "the Union sentiment gets 
stronger and stronger, "^^ and on June 24 he wrote Everett, 
answering a letter of the i8th and authorizing Everett 
to say that his speech in Frederick was conclusive as 
to the position of Calhoun against secession. 2" In that 
speech, he hailed with joy in "this existing crisis" "every 
indication of a national patriotic spirit." He spoke as 
to Maryland's duty and interest. The State has ever 
been loyal and, "if we continue true to patriotic duty, 
no ordinance of secession, direct or indirect, open or 
covered, will ever be adopted by those in authority, 
or, if madly adopted, be tolerated by the people. To 
this steadfast attachment to the Union, we are not only 

'^ I Moore's Rebellion Record, Int. 60, Docs. 199. 

13 3 Rhodes U. S. 388 & 389. He believed that troops could now pass 
through Baltimore without resistance and that it would be " mischievous" to 
have more than one company of "U. S. soldiers in the city". Hick3 agreed 
with him. 2 Am. Hist. Ass. Rept., 1902, 497 (Chase Papers). 

2° I Moore's Rebellion Rec. Int. 44. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 53 

bound by gratitude to the noble ancestry, by whose 
patriotic wisdom it was bequeathed to us and by the 
unappreciable blessings the bequest has conferred upon 
us, but by the assurance, which the most solid interest 
can hardly fail to feel, that its destruction would not 
only and at once deprive us of all these, but precipitate 
us into irretrievable ruin. In this ruin all would more 
or less participate, but our geographical position would 
make it to us immediate and total." He apologized 
for the recent tumults in Baltimore and asserted that, 
in "every true Maryland bosom, there is a devoted 
attachment to the national emblem. The man who is 
dead to its influence is in mind a fool, or in heart a 
traitor." The Federal government had given no "cause 
for resistance to its rightful authority," and, since peace- 
ful disseverance of the States is impossible, the powers 
which the executive exercised, when "rebellion began 
to muster its armies of pestilence," were clearly consti- 
tutional. If Lincoln had meditated any illegal acts, the 
"friends of constitutional rights were numerous enough 
in Congress" to have thwarted them; but the Southern 
Congressmen, "madly desecrating" the name of Calhoun, 
"rudely shot from their spheres and, under the utterly 
ridiculous claim of constitutional right," advised State 
secession. If Maryland should join these "mad and 
wicked men," who must fail in their attempt, our State 
would be the battle-field. Interest and patriotic duty 
join to retain the State in the Union. When the first 
gun was fired, "without cause," on the "noble garrison" 
of Fort Sumter, the secessionists caused "every man 
able to bear arms to rush to the support of the govern- 
ment." Where in the past the South could count its 
friends by thousands and hundreds of thousands, not 
one is now to be found. The cry is "The Government 
must be sustained, the flag must be vindicated." With 



54 REVERDY JOHNSON 

such strong stirring sentences, in the town in which the 
legislature was convened in special session, Johnson 
cheered the Unionists and summoned the wavering to 
the side of the Nation. 

Though Johnson insisted on the guilt of the secession- 
ists and asserted that a conspiracy of designing leaders 
had deceived the people of the South, when it came to 
a question of the cases of individuals, he ceaselessly 
exerted himself to free from imprisonment persons sus- 
pected of disloyalty, especially those living in Maryland, 
making his efforts sometimes with and sometimes with- 
out pay.^^ Benjamin F, Butler, who commanded in 
Maryland during a part of 1861, never forgave him for 
this action, 22 and, indeed, it affords a curious glimpse of 
contemporary standards of public morals, when we find 
in the following years that Johnson publicly justified, 
on the floor of the United States Senate, his practice 
of taking fees, after he became senator, to induce the 
federal government to free his clients suspected of 
disloyal ty.2* 

^^ Series 2 War of Rebellion Record i p. 628. Johnson and John P. Kennedy, 
on July 4, 1861, called on Lincoln and recommended that Howard be released. 
Tuckerman's Kennedy, p. 318. From Cumberland on October 12, Johnson 
wrote urging the release of Henry May, op. cit. vol. 2, p. 800. On September 
17, Camerson wrote Seward that in order to gratify Johnson he is willing to 
permit Winans to go free (vol. i, p. 682). On September 27, he wrote the 
Department of State that C. J. M. Gwinn, his son-in-law, was perfectly loyal 
(vol. 2, p. 304). On November 12, Johnson recommended the release of 
Maryland prisoners except the Mayor and police commissioners ( vol. i, p. 
704), on November 25, we are told that Johnson has the case of A. A. Lynch 
on hand (vol. i, pp. 710, 714), and, on November 27, General Dix wrote that 
he thought Johnson's list of those to be released was not discriminating 
(vol. I, p. 712). In December, he was interested in the case of W. H. 
Winder (vol. 2, p. 736), and on January 24, 1862, he recommended the release 
of T. J. Claggett (vol i, p. 731)- 

" Butler's Book, p. 234, calls Johnson "the rank and bitter secessionist and 
worse than others, because he concealed it." 

2^ See also manuscript letters of Lawrence Sangster in 1 861, in Library of 
Congress, attacking "Reverence" Johnson for securing releases for "rabid seces- 
sionists," who had the necessary fee. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 55 

Johnson's mediation is also shown by his proposing, 
on August 22,2^ that the boats between Baltimore and 
Southern Maryland be permitted to renew their trips 
to carry freight and not passengers, so as to enable 
loyal people to send their produce to the Baltimore 
markets. 2^ 

Johnson's kindness of heart was shown in a letter he 
wrote Judah P. Benjamin on September 26, 1861, in 
which he asked him to send a full brief in a case in 
v/hich both great lawyers were engaged in the Supreme 
Court, on receipt of which brief Johnson, though dif- 
fering from Benjamin, "totally, on the questions grow- 
ing out of the deplorable crisis," wrote that he would 
try to get Benjamin his fee.^^ 

During the war, Johnson also appeared as counsel for 
army2^ officers who were tried by court martial, General 
Fitz John Porter being his best known client.^^ Johnson 
had known Porter before being made his counsel and 
maintained that the charges against him were malicious 
and his defense was unanswerable. The association of 
lawyer and client had added to Johnson's previous es- 
teem for Porter, "the closer and ever stronger ties of 
personal friendship," and had caused him to regard the 

^* Series i. War of Rebellion Record vol. 5, p. 598. 

^ In March 1862, op. cit., vol. 5, p. 759. 

2' Series 2, War of Rebellion Record vol. 2, pp. 476-477, Benjamin in his 
reply stated that Mrs. Johnson had seemed, "with a woman's true instinct," 
to feel the approach of the war. 

-' Col. Miles 6 Moore's Rebellion Rec. p. 21, January i, 1S62. Col. Kerri- 
gan 3 Moore's Rebellion Rec. p. 109, December 10, 1861. 

2* A Reply to the Review of Judge Advocate General Holt of the Proceed- 
ings, Findings and Sentence of the General Court Martial in the Case of Major- 
General Fitz John Porter and a Vindication of that Officer by Reverdy Johnson, 
1863, in a New York edition, pp. 56, and three Baltimore editions, pp. 88. 
An anonymous "Reply to the Hon. Reverdy Johnson's Attack on the Adminis- 
tration" appeared 1863, Baltimore p. 19, vide 37th Cong. 3rd Sess. Ex. Doc. 
71, the record of the trial, and Series i War of the Rebellion Record, vol. 17 
and vol. 12, part 3, p. 824. 



56 REVERDY JOHNSON 

officer, as a "brave soldier, a true patriot, and a noble 
man. "29 

On September 12, 1861, the Union men of Baltimore 
County nominated Johnson as a candidate for the House 
of Delegates and he was elected as one of the Union 
majority of the Legislature, after an exciting campaign 
in which, because of his professional duties, he made 
only one speech, but that a noteworthy one at Calverton, 
on November 4. In that speech, he vehemently at- 
tacked the secessionists, in Maryland and in the South, 
who were responsible for this "cruel, and unprovoked 
rebellion." He said of these conspirators to destroy the 
Union that before any aggression, "they threw aside the 
mask, cast aside allegiance, and avowed themselves 
rebels and traitors." The notion that State sovereignty 
was paramount to the general Government was "not 
only obscure in principle and impracticable in practice," 
but was also in direct conflict with the Constitution. 
Johnson praised Governor Hicks and General McClellan 
and blamed the late legislature. Of course, there can 
be no coercion of a State, but the powers of the National 
government are ample under the Constitution to coerce 
individuals. ,With great forcefulness, he insisted that 
the war was waged, not to subjugate the South, but to 
"vindicate the Constitution and laws and maintain the 
existence of the government," to "suppress the insur- 

2' In an eloquent peroration, Johnson wrote that the object of the rebellion, 
"even ostentatiously and shamelessly avowed, is not to vindicate and maintain 
freedom, nor even to rescue human slavery, as it at present exists in some of 
the States, from the hazard of a possible early overthrow, but to extend and 
perpetuate it through all time." Gettysburg had been fought and Johnson 
felt sure that the fate of the rebellion was already sealed and that "the very 
leader of the conspiring band, for years the plotter of the treason," is losing 
heart. "In the beginning of his wicked career," Jefferson Davis "ridiculed 
the power of the loyal States. Now he stands conscience stricken and 
appalled." 



> REVERDY JOHNSON 57 

rection, force the citizen to return to his duty, and restore 
him to the unequalled benefits of the Union." "We 
must remain faithful to duty and to honor" and must 
"avoid, as we would pestilence or famine, all communion 
with treason," and victory will be the final result. The 
House of Delegates, in which Johnson served, was one 
of marked ability, containing such men as John A. J. 
Creswell, Thomas S. Alexander, Thomas King Carroll, 
R. Stockett Matthews, J. V. L. Findlay, and John S. 
Berry. In it Johnson introduced his favorite bill, allow- 
ing parties to testify in cases before the courts. He 
submitted vigorous resolves on February 26, "on the 
subject of the course the State will pursue in the pres- 
ent rebellion," in which resolves an indignant denial is 
made of the statement, as an "unfounded and gross 
calumny," that Maryland is, at heart, really with the 
South, and an ardent loyalty is expressed to the federal 
government.'" On March 5, 1862, the legislature elected 
Johnson to the United States Senate, by a vote of 56 
to 28. In the caucus the contest had been a spirited 
and very close one, between Johnson and William Price 
of Western Maryland, who represented the moderate 
men and Henry Winter Davis, who represented the 
more radical element.'^ When Thomas S. Alexander, 
the great chancery lawyer, heard of the nomination, he 
said: "Slavery has received the worst blow that it has 
ever yet met." Johnson's senatorial service, the great- 
est and most essential one which he rendered his country, 
did not begin until December, 1863, though his colleague, 
Governor Hicks, presented his credentials on February 3. 

" 4 Moore's Rebellion Rec. 140 
. '' Johnson was nominated in the caucus by one vote and after it, J. V. L. 
Findlay attempted to carry on the fight, by having Thomas S. Alexander run 
as an independent candidate in the open house. Letter of J. L. V. Findlay 
of May 2, 1906. 



58 REVERDY JOHNSON 

In June, 1862, Johnson was sent to New Orleans by 
Lincoln, as a special agent of the State Department, 
"to investigate and report upon the complaints made by 
foreign consuls against the late military proceedings."'^ 
General Butler had seized certain property of the con- 
suls and of other foreign subjects and there was con- 
siderable complaint concerning the legality of these 
seizures. '^ Johnson arrived in New Orleans early in 
July'* and, after a careful investigation of the matter, 
ordered a great part of the seized property to be re- 
stored.'^ On September 19, Butler wrote Seward: "An- 
other such commissioner as Mr. Johnson sent to New 
Orleans would render the city untenable. The town got 
itself into such a state, while Mr. Johnson was here, 
that he confessed to me he could hardly sleep for nerv- 
ousness, from fear of a rising, and hurried away, hardly 
completing his work, as soon as he heard Bull Run was 
to be attacked. The result of his mission here has 
caused it to be understood that I am not supported by 
the government and that I am soon to be relieved." 

Johnson's friendliness for Southerners is shown by the 
facts that, on June 23, in New York, he was given a 
permit to visit Soule at Fort Lafayette,'^ and that on 

'^ Seward to Johnson, June lo, Series 3 Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, 
vol. 2 p. 239., 5 Rhodes U. S. 277 gives an account of the mission. Johnson's 
report is in 37th Cong. 3rd Sess., Exec. Doc. 16.; vide Series i War of Rebel- 
lion Record, vol. 15, p. 474. Stanton to Butler, June 10, 1862. 

^'The Annual Cj'clopedia for 1862, page 650, discusses Johnson's dealings 
with the Dutch consul, vide Butler's Book pp. 522 and 525 for his account. 
Parton's "Butler in New Orleans," p. 356, said that Johnson was sent to comply 
with the demands of foreign powers, if it could be done without concessions 
too humiliating, and that he associated almost exclusively with secessionists 
in Louisiana, vide also pp. 364 to 377, 380, 385, 387, 389, 391, 470, 472. 

^ Series i Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, vol» 15, p. 493. On June 23, hje 
was in New York and (Series 3, vol. 2, p. 213) on July 10, he was in New Orleans. 

^ Series 3 Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, vol. 2, p. 572. 

^* Series 2 Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, vol. 4, p. 55 and 86. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 59 

September 13, A. Walker, a prisoner on Ship Island, writ- 
ing Jefferson Davis and attacking Butler, said that 
Johnson at New Orleans manifested "some sympathy 
for our wronged people and some disgust for the excesses 
and villainies" of Butler. 

Butler also conferred with Johnson with reference to 
the shipment of cotton and sugar, bat was disgusted 
with the position of the commissioner in this matter 
also.^* Butler was anxious to have the commerce of the 
poit of New Orleans reestablished and Johnson wished 
to cooperate in this object, but they seem not to have 
accomplished anything.'^ As soon as he arrived at New 
Orleans Johnson showed his distaste for military rule, 
and, after consultation with Butler, Gov. Shepley of 
Louisiana was sent to Washington by Butler, while 
Johnson wrote Lincoln expressing the fear that General 
Phelps was crushing union feeling in the State.*" Lincoln 
replied, disagreeing with Johnson's fears, and continued: 
"You remember telling me, the day after the Baltimore 
mob in April, 1861, that it would crush all union feeling 
in Maryland for me to attempt bringing troops over 
.Maryland soil to Washington. I brought the troops, 
notwithstanding, and yet there was union feeling enough 
left to elect a legislature the next autumn, which in turn 
elected a very excellent Union United States Senator.** 
I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the 
Christian terms of repentance and also to give ample 
time for repentance, still I must save this government, 
if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do, 

" Series 2 Ofif. Recs. of War of Rebellion., Vol. 4, p. 880. 
'* Vide Series 3, Off Recs. of War of Rebellion, Vol. a, pp. 239 and 284. 
'* Series 3, Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, Vol. 2, p. 264. 
** Series i. Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, Vol. 15, p. 521 and series 3, Vol. 
i,PP- 53, 528. 

*^ Johnson himself. 



60 REVERDY JOHNSON 

but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I 
shall not surrender this game, leaving any available 
card unplayed."*^ 

*' '^Ti an elaborate letter to the National Intelligencer of December 2, 1862, 
Johnson refused the charges made by a New Orleans Journal, reflecting on his 
conduct in that rity, 6 Moore's Rebellion Record 21. An interesting proof of 
Johnson's reputation is found in a remark by Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, in a letter 
to Gen. H. W. H. Peck, in which tlie farmer consents to the publication of a 
letter he has written, if Johnson or some other fit person mould it in such 
shape as not to compromise him. Off. Recs. of War of Rebellion, series i, vol. 
30, part I, p. 235. 



CHAPTER IV 

Service in the Senate During the War (1863-65) 

On Johnson's return to Congress, he took a position, 
at once, at the head of the Conservative Union men 
and advocated the prosecution of the war and the 
restoration theory of reconstruction. He was easily the 
equal of any man on the floor of the Senate, and the 
superior of most of them in the discussion of constitu- 
tional questions, and constitutional questions were des- 
tined to occupy the time of the body during most of 
Johnson's term. In repartee, he was quick, his memory 
was so sure that he could easily refute careless state- 
ments; his acuteness was so great that he saw the real 
point at issue and aimed directly at it, or, if he thought 
that he might throw his antagonists off the true scent, 
he "wandered" into discussion of themes more or less 
closely related. His relations to all the members were 
friendly and in debate he was most courteous. How- 
ever emphatic his words might be in characterizing the 
policy of his opponents on the hustings, in the Senate 
his urbanity was almost unperturbed. How much the 
country owes to his conciliatory disposition during those 
eventful years can scarcely be measured. He was no 
extremist and was ever willing to sink his own views 
as to the expediency, or even as to the constitutionality, 
of measures, if thereby, he could lead the majority to 
some greatly desired end. His conduct was that of a 
statesman, not of a politician and, at times, though 
he opposed a bill, he would suggest amendments to 
it, so as to render it less objectionable. With Sumner, 
his conflicts were almost of daily occurrence and, on 

61 



62 REVERDY JOHNSON 

constitutional points, he invariably worsted him, while 
he was constantly parrying Sumner's thrusts and driving 
counter ones home. With Fessenden, he sparred on 
terms of full equality, and that too much forgotten great 
man, Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, was the only senator, 
who, in my judgment, ever came out victor in a conflict 
with Johnson. 

Let us summarize his position on the many important 
questions which came before him, and then study it 
in more detail in this and the following chapters. He 
opposed the voluntary enlistment of Indians and favored 
that of negroes, while expressing the wish that enough 
white men might have been found as troops to have 
ended the war. Slaves, as persons, could be legally 
enlisted, but did not become free on enlistment. They 
should be freed, with compensation to loyal masters, 
because of enlistment. The families of slaves, how- 
ever, should not be liberated by the slaves' enlistment; 
partly because this would be unjust to masters, partly 
because it interfered with State's rights, and partly 
because the demoralization caused by slavery had made 
it impossible to find the families in many cases. 

He insisted on Maryland's loyalty and was quick 
to protest against any high-handed acts of the Federal 
government in that State. He insisted that the Rebel- 
lion was to be put down not under the war power, which 
referred to foreign relations, but under that to suppress 
insurrection. It was true that, from the great extent 
of insurrection, it had become necessary to concede 
privileges of belligerency to the Confederates and it 
was questionable as to whether this concession did not 
take away the right to punish them for high treason, 
to the penalties of which crime they would otherwise 
have been liable. When the insurrection is put down, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 63 

the pov\er to suppress it is at an end. The States have 
never been out of the Union and, consequently, need 
not to be brought back. At the conclusion of a civil 
war, amnesty should be given, and the States should 
be encouraged to reestablish their governments as soon 
as possible, on the basis of present, not of past, loyalty 
to the United States. By these new governments repre- 
sentatives to Congress should be chosen, to be accepted 
or rejected, according to their individual qualifications, 
and not because they come from States whose citizens 
have lately been in rebellion. If the South is willing 
to return, the mass of the people must be pardoned; 
for, if all are punished, no inhabitants would be left 
but the former slaves. Though he thought the war 
should be ended, when the South was willing to submit, he 
was willing to destroy slavery by constitutional change. 
He voted for the Thirteenth Amendment, and said: 
"I thank God, as a compensation for the blood, the 
treasure and agony, which have been brought into our 
households," the war "has stricken, now and forever, 
this institution from its place among our States." Blaine 
wrote^ that Johnson, who "had long been eminent at 
the bar of the Supreme Court" and who "had stood 
firmly by the Union .... added largely to 
the ability and learning" of the Senate. 

We find scattered references to Johnson during 1863. 
Thus, on July 4, he wrote Dr. W, H. Hammond about 
improving conditions at Fort Delaware, where a number 
of prisoners were confined, '^ and, on October 22, he went 
with Governor Bradford to confer with Lincoln on Mary- 
land matters.' The Federal administration interfered 

' I Twenty years in Congress, 502. 

* Series 2, Off. Recs., Vol. 6, p. 80. 

* Series 3, Off. Recs., Vol. 3, p. 967. 



64 REVERDY JOHNSON 

considerably in the Congressional elections htld that 
year in Maryland and from Washington, on November 
23, Johnson sent Bradford an opinion that he must 
proclaim those as Members of Congress, who were 
elected on the face of the returns, as the proclamation 
was a ministerial function and the Governor had no 
corrective power, although the election had been "not 
by the free choice, but under the duress of military 
violence and in the utter disregard of the rights and 
honor of a loyal State. "^ This interference in Maryland 
elections may well have contributed to Johnson's break- 
ing with Lincoln, soon after the session of Congress 
began. In the presidential campaign of 1864, Johnson 
supported McClellan with zeal and, in his behalf, de- 
livered a stirring address in Brooklyn on October 21,* 
in which speech, while professing as much abhorrence 
as ever for the claim of the right to secede, he eloquently 
stated that Lincoln's war policy had been a failure. 
The question was w^hether liberty was to survive and 
the nation to be restored with the preservation of our 
form of constitutional government. The "rebellion, in 
^4 the beginning, was without justification or excuse and 
Lincoln's policy was right, until he issued the emanci- 
pation proclamation. "Military necessity" was a dan- 
gerous plea, which had led to "shameless interference" 
with elections in Maryland and Kentucky. "No one 
dislikes slavery more than I do," he continued, but 
although the war had given slavery a death blow, there 
was no rightfulness in Lincoln's demand that slavery be 
abolished as a condition of peace. The army and navy 
had failed, although McClellan, Porter, Sheridan, and 
Farragut had done nobly. Lincoln had shown his "utter 

* Md. Publ. Docs. 1864. 

^ Speech before the Brooklyn McClellan Central Association, 1864, pp. 16. 



REVERDY JOHNSON ■" 65 

unfitness for the presidency," and sought reelection by 
"most unscrupulous and unexampled abuse of patronage 
and power." The Davis- Wade plan for reconstruction 
was commended and attention was drawn to the fact 
that the Confederate States had failed to receive recog- 
nition by foreign powers. The "rebel government," 
Johnson said, "still stands alone among the family of 
nations." "No single one, small or great, will admit 
it to fellowship. Cotton, the rebels find, is not king. 
Nor in this age of the world can mere material wealth 
ever be king."® 

In 1864, a Constitutional Convention was held in 
Maryland and a constitution abolishing slavery was 
submitted for ratification to the people. The Conven- 
tion prescribed an oath of loyalty to be taken by all 
voters and Johnson gave an opinion, on October 7, that 
this requirement was unconstitutional and that the 
Convention had usurped powers, but there was no 
remedy, and that the people who can do so may take 
the oath and vote upon the Constitution, which after 
the election was declared adopted by a small majority.' 
In the Senate, on December 18, 1863, Johnson had ob- 
jected to a similar oath, as prescribed for officers of the 
United States, and, in the debate upon that oath, he 
developed an elaborate argument in defense of the prop- 
osition that Members of Congress are not officers. 

Johnson's first appearance on the floor of the Senate 
occurred on the day previous. John P. Hale had risen 

* It is interesting to see among the lesser activities of Johnson during this 
year, the receipt in April of a fee of $i,ooo to get Maddox, a blockade runner, 
clear. Series i, Off. Recs., vol. 60, p. 33. On March 10, Series i, Off. Recs. 
vol. 43, pp. 27, 122, Johnson showed his friendliness to Meade in writing to 
ask the latter, if Johnson was not right in denying certain allegations as to 
Meade's conduct at Gettysburg. 

^ Opinion, etc., 1864, pp. 6. 



66 REVERDY JOHNSON 

to a question of privilege, having been attacked by a 
newspaper for receiving a fee for getting a client out 
of the old Capitol prison, and said that, before he kept 
the money, having an "exceeding jealousy" of his repu- 
tation as a Senator, he went for advice to Johnson, who 
held a "very high social position and a high professional 
position." Johnson had said there was "not the least 
objection in the world" and added that, "as to this 
matter you are asking me about, I am doing it every 
week." Johnson then rose to corroborate Hale's state- 
ment and said that there was no more reason for a 
member of either House of Congress to avoid appearing 
in military cases than in those before ordinary criminal 
courts.' 

On the question of taking an oath, Johnson spoke thrice. 
Senator Bayard of Delaware had refused to take it and 
Johnson argued that it was unnecessary for him to do 
so. On January 2, Johnson said that he had taken the 
oath under protest, because he was unwilling to have 
it conjectured, on any ground, however feeble, "that I 
was not loyal as he must be who takes that oath." 
The oath was also bad since it was provided in an ex post 
facto law and since It disqualified a man from office with- 
out conviction of crime. In the debate, Johnson dis- 
cussed the theories of war and of reconstruction. He held 
that Sumner's argument was "not only unconstitutional 
but most mischievous," in holding that the war, "which 
is now covering the land with blood in one section and 
carrying agony in another, has dissolved perpetually 
the ties which bound us of the loyal States to the States 
in rebellion," so that the latter are "out of the Union 
as States" and are "territory, subject to the unlimited 

• On February 10, 1864, he spoke again on this subject and stated, as he bad 
previously, that he was willing to plead without fee. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 67 

will of Congress and to come back only at such time 
and upon such terms" as Congress may fix.^ The war 
was waged "to restore the authority of the Government" 
and "the end is the suppression of the rebelHon." When 
this is accompHshed, the war power is at an end and the 
submission of the people of a State brings her back into 
the Union. The powers of the government are "exerted 
not as against States, but as against citizens." "There 
is not one man in a thousand in the South, who has 
not fallen into the vortex of this rebellion. Some men 
of hardy character, stubborn virtue, inflexible firmness, 
a loyalty that quailed before nothing, have been able 
to drag out a miserable existence, cheered only by the 
consciousness that they were doing right under the 
oppression and outrages to which they have been sub- 
jected in the rebel States;" but, "for the most part, 
firmness has yielded, association has had its influence. 
You must not exile, exterminate, or enslave the men 
who submit."^" He had confidence in the speedy close 
of the war and that "there will arise, in all its original 
power, that love of the Union, that reverence for our 
forefathers, that pride in our common glory, that desire 
to share in the achievements, which we have won to- 
gether in the past, to bring them back again to act with 
us as brethren, brethren in heart as well as in deed." 

On January 25, in his third speech on the subject, 
Johnson" again maintained that a Senator was not a 

' He denied that the Prize Cases were authority against him. The Supreme 
Court there really said that the property was an enemy's and the fact that 
he was a traitor, "because he owed allegiance to the United States," was no 
defence. 

•"Johnson added that "I have thought slavery wrong, since I was capable 
of thinking," and immoral, shocking "the heart of every freeman, which beats 
true to the inspiration of the goddess of liberty." 

" At this time, he read Sumner a delicious lecture on the "very positive way" 
in which he expressed his opinions. 



68 REVERDY JOHNSON 

civil officer. He is "not an officer under the govern- 
ment, but above the government. He does not derive 
his authority from the government, but from the crea- 
tors of the government. His commission comes from 
his State. ^2 We should look at the matter from the 
point of view of the country, but should not let our 
patriotism run wild. The act of 1862, providing the 
oath of which Johnson complained, does not include 
State legislatures, and judges and no oath can be forced 
on them, yet without it, what security is there against 
another rebellion? This should not be a war of subju- 
gation. Johnson was willing to go as far as was neces- 
sary to put down the rebellion, but only in a constitu- 
tional way. He favored restoration. "If the South is 
willing to return — I do not mean the leaders, if captured, 
they should be tried and convicted and execution should 
follow to a large extent, but you cannot try and con- 
vict four or five or six million people," and, if you could, 
you would have only the slaves left in the South.^^ 

A resolution had been introduced for the expulsion 
of another Border State Senator, Garrett Davis of Ken- 
tucky, and Johnson came to his defense also.^* Davis 
had introduced resolutions on January 5, censuring the 
president. On January 26, Johnson denied that the 
resolutions were treasonable and said he wished neither 
to offend Kentucky, nor limit the right to criticise the 
conduct of the executive. He referred to famous past 
opponents of administration, both in England and in 
America, such as Burke, who rejoiced that the colonists 
resisted. In a remarkably strong speech, he defended 

^^ He referred to the Blount Case on January 21, he referred also to the case 
of Smith in Burr's time. 

'^ On March 14, he spoke on the power to require an oath of loyalty from 
citizens who transferred property and said this was often done in Louisiana 
to avoid confiscation. 

" On January 11, he spoke in favor of prompt action in the matter. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 69 

Davis, who had been for years an opponent of the 
extension of slave territory and had gone with his 
nephews a hundred miles to beat back the rebel invaders 
of Kentucky. Johnson would not vote for the resolves, 
but held their criticism of the President not more cen- 
surable than that indulged in by such a New England 
senator as Hale.'^ Johnson felt that the administration 
was justly censurable for making the Southern people 
desperate. " In my judgment, the ultra measures, which 
now seem to be the favorite measures of the govern- 
ment, that is to say the measures of destroying slavery 
in the States, of enforcing the confiscation laws, of dis- 
tributing the lands among the loyal soldiers, or among 
blacks, do more to keep alive the rebellion, than any 
one cause or perhaps all causes combined." On Janu- 
ary 28, he spoke again on the subject and claimed the' 
liberty to denounce the executive in the strongest terms, 
if necessary. On that day, through the vigorous oppo- 
sition of Davis's friends, the resolution of expulsion was 
withdrawn.!^ 

The enrollment bill took much of Johnson's thought 
during January,^^ and the enlistment of negroes was dis- 
cussed by him in a speech delivered on the twelfth and 
fourteenth. Free negroes were already enrolled in Mary- 
land and slaves, as "persons," might be enrolled, ^^ but 
as they were also "property" their masters should be 

" Johnson referred to his own support of Lincoln in 1861 and claimed that 
Luther v. Borden had shown that treason can be committed against a State 
and, therefore, that the President could even commit treason against Kentucky! 

^* Davis attacked Wilson of Massachusetts on February 17 and Johnson 
poured oil on the troubled waters, calling to mind Wilson's previous attack 
on Davis. 

" On January 7, he suggested the requirement of a month or more of resi- 
dence and spoke of the difficulty as to sailors plying between two States. 

^*They could be tried for treason, if they had done "as the white men in 
the Southern States have done — I do not mean all the Southern States — 
thank God, I am not obliged to say so." 



70 REVERDY JOHNSON 

paid for their services. In Maryland, the enlisting 
officer tells all slaves they are free and enlists all he 
can of them. Johnson protests against such conduct, 
although, he adds, "that the State will be benefitted 
by the effect of it in the end, I have no doubt." If 
necessary^ ^ he does not object to calling on slaves to 
assist in putting down the rebellion, which had become 
so much more formidable than at first was thought, 
and which "proper exertion, proper skill in the field, 
proper foresight on the part of the Executive, proper 
legislation on the part of Congress, would have quelled 
previous to this time." He wished the white men alone 
had done the work of conquest, and believed that the 
South had done its utmost and that we need no longer 
to raise more men. Johnson thought that he had better 
information than most persons at the North and that 
Louisiana and Mississippi were "utterly exhausted in 
everything but zeal and intrepidity of a portion of 
their population." The deluded masses of the South- 
erners will continue to fight, while nature survives, but 
Lincoln's recent proclamation, though far from such as 
would be proper, is already doing a great deal to restore 
union feeling. The speech ended with a panegyric on 
the Union and a hope that the Southerners may return 
to the Union and "restore their States, by means of 
free labor, to a State of prosperity and power that they 
never in the past attained. "^^ Henry Wilson said in 
the debate, that the Maryland elections had been car- 
ried on the issue of the enlistment of slaves and that the 
people had preferred that the blacks should go rather 
than themselves. Johnson came at once to the defence 

"With his jealousy for Congress' power, he states that of the necessity 
"Congress must judge in the first instance and the Executive afterward." 
*•> On the isth Johnson spoke on certain of the details of the enrollment bill. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 7 1 

of the State and, on the sixteenth, said that, on the 
Eastern Shore, many thought that the national govern- 
ment had no right to enlist blacks and that they would 
be ineffective compared with white troops. Johnson 
agreed with the latter contention, though he believed 
negroes could become good soldiers after a year or two of 
training. He maintained that the result of the Eastern 
Shore election was due to the interference of the mili- 
tary, without proper authority, to prevent any one from 
voting, unless he took the oath prescribed by the mili- 
tary commander, and to arrest any one whom they 
thought to be disloyal. Some men were arrested miles 
from the polls. Men of ''stern and rigid loyalty" were 
arrested, because they were obnoxious through their 
opposition to immediate emancipation without com- 
pensation to masters, and were thrown into the old 
slave prison in Baltimore. When discharged, they were 
returned to Chesterto^\^l by a steamer, which also bore 
a private letter directing the officer in command of the 
troops there, who had gone to repeat the outrage else- 
where, to release two of the men and detain the rest 
until after the election. As a result, Creswell, whom 
Johnson respected, was elected and owed his seat in 
the House to "as great an outrage as ever was perpe- 
trated upon freemen." Harlan of Iowa defended the 
acts of the military and said that, within the last three 
years, the Federal Government had one hundred thou- 
sand men in arms to protect Maryland, since she was 
unable to protect the purity of her elections and the 
civil rights of her own people. Johnson denied the 
truth of this and asserted that the "ultra loyal" Mary- 
land legislature was as devoted to the Union as that of 
Iowa and that the Iowa troops were not superior to 
Marylanders. In April, 1861, Baltimore was "crazy" 



72 REVERDY JOHNSON 

with "a sudden outbreak, not premeditated at all, con- 
fined to a very few. Every city has a combustible 
population and, whenever any particular cause of ex- 
citement is started, a few wicked men can get up a 
mob," but "there is not now within the limits of this 
great land, a State in which loyalty beats stronger or 
more universally than it beats within the hearts of the 
sons of Maryland, 2^ and, if the time shall come when it 
shall become necessary to call to the aid of the United 
States every man within her limits, to save the Republic, 
there is not one of them who will be permitted to remain 
in her borders who hesitates for a moment to come to 
the standard of the United States." Johnson opposed 
the raising of men for a hundred days, but was earnest 
in desiring to attain the "object which we all have so 
much at heart, the driving of the rebel authorities from 
Richmond." 

On January 28, he voted in favor of freeing slaves 
when enrolled, but expressed himself as opposed to free- 
ing the mother, wife, or children of soldiers without 
compensation, as to do so would interfere with State's 
rights, it having always been conceded until 1861 that 
slavery was a State institution. A sense of justice 
should require that these slaves be paid for, as had been 
done for slaves when freed in the District of Columbia. 
Otherwise, Maryland will suffer and, "whatever dis- 
affection there may be among certain citizens of Mary- 
land," the State has, "from the first of this rebellion, 
been true to her constitutional duty. Her laws have 
never been silent," nor has the conduct of her officers 
been "other than that of perfect loyalty." Her institu- 

^^ On April 4, Johnson stated that General Lew Wallace would probably not 
interfere in the elections in Maryland, having received satisfactory assurances 
from Governor Bradford. 



REVERDY JOHNSON JT, 

tions should not be interfered with, more than those of 
other States. "We have thought, we are about to 
change our opinion as I think, that it was very mate- 
rial to the industry of Maryland that she should have 
the right to have compulsory labor." The United States 
may interfere with this institution, only on the ground 
of "military necessity," since "the armies of the rebels 
will continue to be supported," if "this labor is left 
undisturbed." So this compulsory labor has been de- 
clared to be at an end in the rebellious States. Johnson 
never apologized for slavery, though many yet believed 
the institution to be of divine origin, but said, "I doubt 
very much if any member of the Senate is more anxious 
to have the country composed entirely of free men and 
women than I am." "There is in every government," 
he continued, "what may be called a higher law and 
that exists . . . . to go outside of the constitu- 
tion and adopt measures that may be found to be abso- 
lutely necessary to preserve the life of the Nation. 
If the life of the American people depends 
upon the transcending any of the particular powers of 
the government, I would transcend them," but that is 
not now the case.^^ When Senator Grimes of Iowa said 
that he had heard that slaves would not enlist, because 
they feared to leave their families in slavery, Johnson 
at once retorted that it was necessary to go out of 
Maryland to learn about it and stated that a "man, 
who was able to bear arms and whom the military 
authority of the United States wished to bear arms, has, 
whether he willed or not, been compelled to bear arms." 
When Grimes gave the recruiting officer in Maryland 

"Later in the speech he said: "I would not suffer the heritage, which is 
ours, to be lost by insisting on a strict and literal enforcement of constitutional 
restriction." 



74 REVERDY JOHNSON 

as his authority, Johnson delivered a panegyric upon 
Massachusetts, but alleged that there was more diffi- 
culty in getting men there than in Maryland, for the 
former State asked leave to go out of its borders and 
get slaves to fill her quota. He even challenged Massa- 
chusetts to show as many enlistments of new soldiers 
in the past year, as the four thousand slaves enlisted 
in Maryland in that year. 

It would often be difficult to prove slave relationships, 
and a slave enlisted in South Carolina might have a 
wife and children in Maryland, for 

it is one of the vices and the horrible vices of the institution, 
one that has shocked me from infancy to the present hour, 
that the whole marital relation is disregarded. They are made 
to be, practically and by education, forgetful or ignorant of 
that relation. When I say they are educated, I mean to say 
they are kept in absolute ignorance and, out of that, immorality 
of every description arises, and among the other immoralities 
is that the connubial relation does not exist. 

In some States, marriage was even prohibited to 
slaves and, in Maryland, it could occur only with the 
master's consent "They lived together, but were never 
man and wife, except in the sight of heaven. You must 
recognize as marriage what is not" and thus violate the 
Constitution, for marriage is a State controlled institu- 
tion, or must pass an ineffective law. 

Slavery "must expire" when the heart is "humanized," 
and in Maryland now no slave would bring ten dollars, 
except as his hire; but the destruction of the institution 
came not from the influence of those Northern men 
"who desired to do away with it," but from "retributive 
justice, which visited crime in God's providence." "The 
men who were here, preaching treason from their desks 
and telegraphing to their minions to seize government 



REVERDY JOHNSON 75 

property, and who tried to seduce military officers, they 
have done it." Turning to the Republican Senators, 
Johnson told them that the Southern leaders 

did not believe you would resist. You are free, and you are 
brave because you are free, and, as I have told them over 
and over again, let the day come when, in their madness, they 
should throw down the gage of battle to the free States of the 
Union and the day of their domestic institution will have 

ended I thank God that, as a compensation 

for the blood, the treasure, and the agony, which have been 
brought into our households and into yours, it has stricken, 
now and forever, this institution from its place among our 
States. 

Yet^^ Johnson was careful not to use harsh epithets 
concerning preceding generations of men and reminded 
the Senate that Washington held slaves until his death. 

The question of the enlistment of slaves came up 
again on February 14, when Johnson complained, as 
together with Governor Bradford he had already done 
to Lincoln, that the recruiting officers in Maryland took 
slaves, without the consent of or compensation to the 
owners and without draft or conscription. He believed 
that the majority of Maryland slaveholders would have 
been willing to let their slaves be taken, provided a 
reasonable compensation were made and saw no differ- 
ence between giving a bounty to a white volunteer or 
to a negro's owner. On the twenty-fifth, he spoke again 
on the same subject and took occasion to criticise the 
waste and fraud of public officials, though he was not 
afraid of lack of financial ability to win the combat, if 
resources were husbanded. The Maryland loyal slave- 
holders 

'^^ In speech on February 9. 



76 REVERDY JOHNSON 

are much more wedded to the Union than they are wedded to 
any of their local institutions and, especially, more than they 
are wedded to that particular institution, which, I now thank 
God, as they do, very many of them, is about to expire in 
Maryland.^* 

When the passage of an act was urged by Andrew of 
Massachusetts to pay $13, instead of $10 a month to 
negro troops, on the ground that they were promised 
the larger amount, Johnson promptly responded that a 
public agent may not bind the government wrongfully, 
and that the true question is whether the soldiers are 
properly entitled to more. Certainly, the Maryland 
regiments had no such assurance and there is no obliga- 
tion to give them extra pay. In this debate, Johnson's 
power of repartee was clearly shown, when he stated 
that he had confidence in Andrew's integrity, though 
^'perhaps he is a little wild upon a particular subject." 
Sumner interrupted with: "Wise, the Senator meant," 
and Johnson instantly replied: "Wild, I said. He may 
be a little wise. I think he is certainly wild." Again 
it was said that Massachusetts had offered to pay the 
extra amount, but the soldiers insisted on taking it 
from the United States, Johnson said, "They are gentle- 
men of extraordinary sensibility." And when Grimes 
said their officers persuaded them, Johnson replied: 
"They are docile and easily persuaded, they believe 
almost anything." 

On February 26, the bill allowing negroes to be em- 
ployed in mail service and the testimony of colored men 
to be received in all cases in the Federal courts came 
up for discussion. Johnson said that he preferred "that 

"On March 10, Johnson said that the enlisted slave "had, as against the 
United States, a right to freedom, which it would be dishonorable" to refuse, 
but that the proper compensation for them to the master was a judicial ques- 
tion, $300 being not enough for some slaves and too much for others. 



REVERDY JOHNSON ']'] 

all questions, depending on human testimony, should 
rather be questions of credibility than questions of com- 
petency," and that he had urged this view upon the 
Maryland legislature in 1862, but that he objected to 
slaves testifying. "It is useless to deny that there has 
been in Maryland, and to a certain extent there exists 
now, a very strong sympathy with the South," and this 
law will make matters worse, while it will not hasten 
the end of the war. He felt that the North's prosperity 
was due chiefly to the absence of slavery there. The 
utmost the law should allow was that all free men might 
testify — the slaves lacked the needful moral and intel- 
lectual education. 

When it was proposed to permit black men to vote 
in Montana, Johnson objected^^ that those "who have 
been slaves from infancy are not intelligent enough at 
once to exercise the right of suffrage," and yet enough 
of such men might go to Montana to control the terri- 
tory. The debate led to a reference to the Dred Scott 
case and Sumner expressed the hope that Congress 
would proceed without "respect to a decision, which 
has already disgraced the country. "^^ Johnson admitted 
that he had always doubted whether the part of the 
decision as to the unconstitutionality of the Missouri 
compromise were not extrajudicial, but took occasion 
to praise Chief Justice Taney and the Supreme Court 
and to attack Sumner for conceit. Johnson said that 
Clay had told him, that after Taney had been five 
years on the bench, he apologized to Taney for his 
opposition to his confirmation and continued: 

It was my good fortune to be with the present Chief Justice 
and opposed to him while at the bar and almost every day for 

^ On March 30. 
'•On March 31. 



78 REVERDY JOHNSON 

years, and for consummate ability in his profession, for unsullied 
integrity in all the relations of life, while he graced and honored 
our bar, there was no man in the government and no man in 
any government, acquainted with his character, who would 
think himself at all disparaged by having Taney considered, 
in the judgment of the men who knew him, his equal. 

On April 5, when the Thirteenth Amendment was 
under debate, ^^ Johnson discussed whether it was right 
and whether the consequences would be "such as to 
render it inexpedient, because inhuman in other par- 
ticulars, to do what is right." To manumit at once 
nearly four million slaves, who have been In bondage 
always and have been kept in almost absolute Igno- 
rance, Is an event to which the world's history affords 
no parallel. The fathers of the Republic thought slav- 
ery sinful and evil and that It would, at sometime, come 
to an end, but that the union could not be formed with- 
out recognizing it. 

I am satisfied and have always been that, sooner or later, 
the present condition was inevitable. 

I never doubted that the day must come, when human slavery 
would be terminated by a conclusive effort on the part of the 
bondsmen, unless that other and better reason and influence 
which might bring it about should be successful — the mild, 
though powerful, influences of that higher and elevated morality 
which the Christian religion teaches. 

He agreed with JefTerson, that, in a contest bet\veen 
slave and master, the God of justice could not help the 

"White's Life of Lyman Trumbull, at page 227, states that "the most im- 
pressive speech made in either branch of Congress was that of Senator Reverdy 
Johnson of Maryland. The fact that he represented a slave holding State 
could not fail to add force to any argument he might make in support of the 
measure, but the argument itself, both in its moral and its legal aspects, was of 
surpassing merit. It deserves a high place in the annals of senatorial eloquence." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 79 

latter. "A prosperous and permanent peace can never 
be secured, if the institution is permitted to survive," 
yet it can only be destroyed by constitutional amend- 
ment. The doctrine of the Prize Cases did not termi- 
nate civil obligations and Lincoln can not free the 
slaves of the enemy, where he has not physical power 
to attain that result. The Southerners are "both rebels 
and enemies," though many Union men in the South 
only obey de facto governments. The proclamation of 
amnesty, requiring that those who accepted it should 
also accept the emancipation proclamation, only affected 
persons within the Union lines antecedently to the proc- 
lamation, and it would be futile to pass a law freeing 
slaves within the enemies' lines, even though Congress 
possessed the war power, under which J. Q. Adams in 
1836 thought slavery might be abolished. Slaves com- 
ing to the Union lines may be made free by the emanci- 
pation proclamation, but the courts will not hold others 
to be free. The Constitution gives no authority for 
national intervention with slavery in a State at peace, 
so that slaves may continue to exist in Maryland. Yet 
the Nation ought to terminate "that institution which 
deals with humanity as property, which claims to shackle 
the mind, the soul, and the body, which brings to the 
level of the brute, a portion of the race of men. Slavery 
is not of divine origin and the negroes, who long for 
freedom, have been kept in ignorance, because, if they 
had knowledge, "they would be free men or die in the 
attempt." Johnson once believed that slavery and free 
government might go on for ages and abolition would 
be peaceful ; but now, owing to "misjudging philanthropy 
in one section and to a traitorous purpose in another, 
that time, in my view, is passed, and we must terminate 
slavery. When that is done the wit of man will, as I 



80 REVERDY JOHNSON 

think, be unable to devise any other topic upon which 
we can be involved in a fraternal strife." 

In this speech, he discussed the question of sover- 
eignty and said that " there never was a greater political 
heresy" than Calhoun's, in saying "that the only sover- 
eignty was that which belonged to the States." 

The States, in the first place, were never disunited. As one 
they declared independence. As one, they fought and con- 
quered the independence so declared. As one, in order to make 
that independence fruitful of all the blessings which they antici- 
pated from it, they made the Constitution of the United 

States There was no absolute sovereignty, that 

is to say there was no sovereignty coextensive with the whole 
scope of political power, belonging to the government of either, 
but each was invested with a portion of the sovereignty, which 
the people might create, and each, therefore, within the extent 
of the portion allowed it, was to the extent of that portion 
supreme. 

The Union is irrevocable, except when "that other and 
paramount right, never recognized by constitutions of 
government, comes into existence .... the 
right of revolution." 

Somewhat later, on April 19, he opposed the repeal of 
the fugitive slave act of 1793, whose rightfulness no 
one doubted at its passage and whose constitutionality 
the courts maintained. The act of 1850, though con- 
stitutional, was objectionable and may be repealed, but 
it must be remembered that the Constitution itself is 
a fugitive slave act and the practical effect of the repeal 
of the law of 1793 "may create unpleasant feeling in 
that part of the South which is sectionally loyal, and 
among many in that part of the South who, though 
sectionally disloyal, are themselves loyal." Sumner 
entered into an argument with him and said the deca- 



REVERDY JOHNSON 8 1 

logiie abolished slavery. "Then leave the question to 
the courts," Johnson replied, and taunted Massachusetts 
with her position in 1812 and with suffering her "love 
of freedom to boil over." She thus "enabled these 
traitors to fan into treason the public mind of the South." 
Johnson desired the destruction of slavery by constitu- 
tional amendment, and urged united action to "put 
down this vile, wicked, and wholly unjustifiable rebel- 
lion. "^^ On June 24, when discussing Sumner's bill to 
prohibit the coastwise interstate slave trade, Johnson 
urged the propriety of the act under the commercial 
power of Congress. 29 A day later he denied that the 
two races cannot live together, as the free blacks did 
with whites in the past, to satisfy demands for labor. 
Though social and political equality, as the history of 
the North shows is impossible, freedmen can and do 
live in peace with their former masters and the laws 
requiring emancipated slaves to leave some States are 
recent. 

Although Johnson had come to be an opponent of 
Lincoln,^" yet he was tenacious for the preservation of 

2* On June 22, Johnson and Sumner again came into conflict over this bill, 
when the former moved a postponement, to let Davis, who was ill, be heard 
upon it. Sumner urged going on to perfect the bill, which Johnson remarked, 
being merely a repealing act, was already perfect. 

-^ Collamer, in this discussion, got the better of Johnson in a neat repartee. 
The former stated that the courts had said that a man could import and sell 
goods, in spite of any State law. When Johnson replied that the decision 
referred to goods in the original package, Collamer reported: "Well, I take it, 
that is the way negroes are generally sold." In the same discussion, Johnson 
and Sumner had another sparring match, in which the latter said that Johnson 
is always "'willing to interjjret the constitution for slavery. I interpret for 
freedom." Johnson shortly afterwards said that the word person included 
slaves, as is conceded by every lawyer, unless Sumner "claims to be one, after 
having been out of practice more years that I should dare to mention." 

'"For example on June 25, he said Lincoln had "seduced" Congress to 
appoint a commissioner of navigation. 



82 REVERDY JOHNSON 

the President's powers and, when the bill for the appoint- 
ment of a lieutenant-general was under discussion, ex- 
pressed doubts as to whether the bill did not go too far 
and deprive the President of his power to remove the 
officer and wished Grant's name, which had been rec- 
ommended in the bill, stricken out, as it was a bad 
precedent. He praised Grant and thought Lincoln, 
though he had done his best, yet had been largely re- 
sponsible for the errors of other officers through his 
interference. It was no disparagement of Grant to 
remove his name and the clause of recommendation, 
which had no legal operation, may put the President 
and the Senate at loggerheads. If Grant is so excel- 
lent, the President cannot help appointing him and the 
recommendation really disparages Grant, by suggesting 
that another might be appointed. In a later speech'^ 
Johnson said the bill was also a reflection on General 
Halleck, whom Johnson knew intimately and in whose 
society he had spent months. After talking over with 
Halleck all the subjects connected with the war and 
visiting his office daily, he felt in agreement with Gen- 
eral Scott that Halleck was "as fit, if not more fit, to 
discharge the duties of the place that he holds than any 
other man."'^ On March 2, Johnson defended McClellan 
and Meade and the Army of the Potomac, which had 
twice saved Washington, and said that assaults on officers 
"are exceedingly inappropriate and impolitic," though, 
in the same speech, he censured Lincoln and criticised 
mildly Hooker and Burnside.^^ 

*i On February 24. 

*2 Johnson admitted that Halleck was no Chesterfieldian, but claimed that 
the failures of the Army of the Potomac, which body he praised, were due to 
others, more than to HaUeck. 

^' On Union military matters, we find Johnson, on May 2, objecting to the 
payment of the hundred days Western volunteers, on the ground that the 



REVERDY JOHNSON 83 

Over a month later, In speaking on the Fort Pillow 
massacre, ^^ Johnson asked why no reinforcements had 
been sent thither. 

We feel indignant at this Vandalic outrage, which never 
could have been perpetrated, I think, in this age of the world, 
even by cannibals, with more ferocity than is stated to have 

attended this particular outrage There is now 

in part of this rebel soldiery .... who have been 
frenzied into madness and become worse than savages, a dis- 
position which has none of the restraints of civilized warfare 
and it is time, high time, since the United States in my judg- 
ment, in the exercise of a power with which they are clearly 
invested, have thought proper to enlist into their army Africans, 
that these rebellious foes of ours should learn that, upon the 
field of battle, in the eye of justice and in the opinion of the 
United States, the life of a soldier under our flag is as dear as 
the life of any rebel and that nothing will satisfy the honor of 
the one and satisfy the demands of the other, if the horrid 
alternative should be left to us, but life for life. It will never 
do that we should suffer our soldiers to be treated with the 
barbarity, the inhumanity, the savage barbarity with which 
it is said they have been treated upon this occasion. 

On May 21, Johnson showed his tenderness of heart, 
by moving an executive session, so that a mortally 

President had not bound Congress by calling them out and that, if the period 
counts from enlistment, not from muster, the government got but little good 
from them. On the next day, in reference to the same bill, he said a motion 
to reconsider it, made within two days of its passage, will keep it from being 
sent to the Executive. In reference to the cases of Generals Schenck and 
Blair, he said, on May i6, that the unbroken precedent of both army and 
navy was to cancel resignations and consider officers to be in the service again, 
if the ofBcers and the President so desired. Johnson instanced the case of 
Captain Buchanan (then Admiral Buchanan in the Confederate navy) with 
whom Johnson "had been very intimate" and of whom "he had a very high 
opinion," who resigned the command of the Navy Yard at Washington and 
was later reinstated therein. 
»^ On April i6. 



84 REVERDY JOHNSON 

wounded officer who had been promoted, might be con- 
firmed before he died. On June 8, he objected to allow- 
ing commutation for men drafted into the army although 
he stated that he was willing to vote to enlarge the 
amount from $300 to I500 or $600. 

He felt^^ that it was perilous to keep men so long a 
time as three years in the service, as they get attached 
to it and unfit for all else and yet there was no author- 
ity by law, in Johnson's opinion, to call out troops for 
a less period. Raw men seemed to him practically as 
brave as veterans and, if the power is properly wielded 
by Grant, as is probable, and the rebellion is terminated 
at all, it will end in one or two years, so a draft for 
three years is too long. 

Johnson also opposed^^ compelling Indians to enlist, 
as they had been granted "virtual independence" and 
it was "inconsistent with our policy to force them to 
come to our aid." It was shameful that we had to 
enlist Africans to aid us and would be a worse shame 
to "drag in the Indians." They may volunteer, as 
foreigners do, but the world's judgment would hold it 
hazardous to bring into the field men who fight with 
the tomahawk, though that weapon is "not a bit 
worse than the weapon the Confederates are using, the 
bowie knife." In drafting Indians, savages can not be 
distinguished from those civilized. 

The question of punishing guerrillas came up on June 
16, and Johnson said, that, in the legal and constitu- 
tional sense, if the war was at an end, the courts would 
not permit a commission from any branch of the Con- 
federate government "issued by a co-conspirator and 
a co-traitor" to serve as a defense against homicide. 

'' On June 23. 
*' On June 20. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 85 

But as we must not have retaliation during the war, 
the Confederates must be recognized as having a govern- 
ment in fact, to be dealt with as legally established and 
entitled to the exchange of prisoners. The bill to pun- 
ish guerrillas, as it does not define them, may lead to 
retaliation and wrongfully takes power from the civil 
authority of loyal States, by providing for the trial of 
the offenses anywhere. ^^ When gunboat contractors 
claimed relief,^^ Johnson favored interference to prevent 
their ruin and urged that "a great government, when 
dealing with citizens, will never be influenced by those 
nice and strictly legal principles which govern contracts 
between man and man." On the same day, he pressed 
on the Senate the importance of proper remuneration 
to Ericsson for his Monitor, by which great boon we 
were placed in position to defy the navies of the world. ^^ 
He was distinctly a Border State Union man and, 
when Saulsbury of Delaware offered an amendment 
to a "bill dealing with the rebel States" that all white 
persons in loyal States be protected, Johnson met this 
manifestation of "copperheadism," by opposing the 
resolution, as it merely affirmed the constitution which 
cannot be made more valid. If there Is not such pro- 
tection, it is the executive's fault and if he will not obey 
the constitution, he will not obey the act. The amend- 
ment further was not germane to the bill. 

The Constitution of the United States, in the States in 
rebellion, is only so far in force as is consistent with the state 
of war which exists between the United States and the States 
in rebellion. The trial by jury and all personal guarantees 

'" On June 30, he again spoke on the danger of retaliation. 
'*0n June 22. 

''He referred to the great joy, because of the victory over the Merrimac, 
which he had seen while a member of the State legislature, at Annapolis. 



86 REVERDY JOHNSON 

that the Constitution provides for a state of peace are neces- 
sarily at an end, for the time, in a state of war between the 
United States and the people. 

Reconstruction had already begun and men from 
Arkansas were knocking at the doors of the Senate 
for admission. An extended debate took place between 
Johnson and Sumner, on June 13, over a motion to 
refer the question of their admission to the judiciary 
committee. Sumner said the seceding States were out 
of the Union and, therefore, their citizens were alien 
enemies, and Johnson's quick rejoinder was that then 
Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was an alien enemy and 
could not be elected vice-president. The fact was, 
however, that Tennessee was a State, as much as ever. 
Sumner replied that the territory was in the Union and 
Johnson quickly said: "I did not suppose the land had 
gone out or seceded" and that Sumner, whose industry 
he praised, had voted for the confirmation and payment 
of federal ofificers in Arkansas. Johnson questioned 
Lincoln's reconstruction policy. The President had no 
right to say who shall be Senator, and his proclamation 
for the restoration of State government, when one- 
tenth of the voters have qualified as loyal, ought to be 
carefully considered. Referring to William Pinkney's 
great speech on the Missouri Compromise, Johnson said 
that a State can come into the Union only as an equal. 
Massachusetts could reestablish slavery, if she thought 
proper to do so, and, if Arkansas could not do so, she 
would not be equal.'*" "I trust in God, the Union is 
destined to last forever, but it cannot last, when once 
it is understood that each State in the Union is not the 
equal of every other." If the seceded States are in 

*"! regret that Johnson cited the baseless slander that Massachusetts sold 
her slaves to the South. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 87 

the Union, they have a right to choose presidential 
electors and if the election hinges on them and Lincoln 
wins through their votes, "I can almost hear, by antici- 
pation, the mutterings of the thunder." Sumner said 
that Johnson agreed with him that the States were not 
entitled to vote and Johnson replied that he always 
tried to agree with Sumner, but seldom succeeded, for 
the difference between them was 

as wide as the poles. I consider the war now being carried 
on against the citizens of those States, as being carried on 
against them individually, that each man is just as much a 
citizen of the United States in these States now, as is each man 
in the loyal States: but as those men, for the most part, are 
now in arms against the United States, trying to destroy the 
United States, they are not to be represented in the electoral 
college, because they are criminals, traitors, whom it is the 
duty of the United States to prosecute as such and to punish 
as such. 

If they are pardoned, reorganize their State govern- 
ments and come here, "they have the right to come, 
but, until they do that, they are the enemies of the 
United States." He was hopeful of success and added: 
"I think I see — but I am sanguine, I think I see that the 
time is comparatively near at hand, when" the rebellion 
"will be put down. I do not believe . . . . it is 
in the providence of God, that this nation is to die. I 
believe it will survive and be the purer and greater for 
the trial through which it was passed." 

Johnson was interested in the Military Academy, ''i 
complained of reexaminations given by the influence of 
Congressmen, and thought that the President should 
appoint cadets and midshipmen from the States in rebel- 
lion, where there are no congressmen, if such pupils 

*^ On March 11 and 14. 



88 REVERDY JOHNSON 

could be found. The Naval Academy had been re- 
moved in 1 86 1 temporarily to Newport and, on April 12, 
he urged its return to Annapolis. At the time of its 
removal, the State of Maryland "was in a condition of 
great disquiet. It is unpleasant for me to recollect how 
deep the feeling of hostility towards the United States, 
on the part of a portion of the people of Maryland, at 
that time was and serious apprehensions were enter- 
tained that the Academy would be taken possession of 
by mob violence, by traitorous machinations, and held 
as against the Government." After the removal. Gen- 
eral Butler seized the grounds and Secretary Stanton 
would not give them up, although most of the naval 
officers wished to return. The War Department could 
get along without the grounds and should not stand 
in the way of the school, for the hospitals now placed 
there can be located elsewhere and Maryland 

has not only spoken, so as to satisfy the whole world that she 
is loyal to the Government and to the Union, but that she is 
loyal to the cause of human freedom, that she has made up 
her mind that the last badge of servitude, as far as her limits 
are concerned, shall be terminated; that her soil shall only 
be trod by the feet of freemen, without regard to complexion 
or to race She desires to be and to remain for- 
ever, a State of a Union, in which there shall be not other 
servitude than the servitude which belongs to an honest and 
patriotic obedience to the laws.^- 

Financial matters received Johnson's attention. He 
objected'*^ to raising the tax on whiskey already distilled, 

*^ Maryland's Constitutional Convention was just about drafting a constitu- 
tion which abolished slavery. While Johnson seems not to have spoken again 
on the Naval Academy question, his letters of Dec. 5, 1865, and March 16, 
1866, to Governors Bradford and Swann printed in 9 Md. Hist. Mag., pp. 
68, 69. show that his interest in the subject continued. 

*^ On February 4. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 89 

as unfair'*^ and, when the deficiency bill came up for 
consideration, on February 12, he remarked that Con- 
gress could not accurately approximate the amount the 
government will need and that a standing committee 
would not help matters. When an appropriation is ex- 
hausted, a department must act on its responsibility, 
trusting that Congress will ratify the act. All that a 
committee could do, would be to see that moneys appro- 
priated are not squandered. It could not say, for exam- 
ple, to officers, you pay too much for hay, or compel 
the Executive to carry on war where it wished. On the 
other hand. Congress is not obliged to appropriate what 
a department asks and may examine its estimates. 

Johnson favored the disposal, for the purchase of 
supplies, of the gold in the treasury not needed for inter- 
est on the debt. The distrust in the power of the 
country to meet its engagements was the cause of the 
premium on gold. The debt increases fast and bears 
higher interest than that of England. It has a bad 
influence for the nation to buy its own notes at a depre- 
ciated value. Extravagance and the great profits of 
contractors should be diminished. He defended Chase's 
relations with Jay Cooke and advocated higher taxes, 
as a means for reviving credit. 

Johnson refused to support the bill prohibiting specu- 
lation in gold, for he felt it could not be passed under the 
powers to regulate the coinage, to borrow money, or to 
regulate commerce. It is not depreciation of coin, but 
of paper, of which there is complaint and the United 
States has no jurisdiction over contracts, by which it 
may prevent gambling in gold or in any thing else, or 

"On March i, he opposed the policy of the Secretary of the Treasury to 
issue s/20 bonds for excess subscriptions and on April i6, he showed watch- 
fulness in the discussion of the appropriation bill. 



90 REVERDY JOHNSON 

over buying and selling for exchange. The bill allowed 
selling of gold in praesente which destroyed its efficiency. 
Currency problems rest on fundamental laws and the 
true causes of the bad state of the currency were infla- 
tion and a war of a "magnitude greater than ever before 
shocked humanity." The true remedy was "additional 
and adequate taxation." Victory will cause the debt 
to be "considered trivial," compared with the Nation's 
present and future resources. ^^ 

He objected also, on April 28, to taxing goods in bond 
at a higher rate, as an act of bad faith. Prices had 
much increased, and the gold bill had had only a tem- 
porary effect, as he had prophesied. The present tariff 
brought in enough to pay the debt, principal and inter- 
es^:, in gold and the proposed temporary measure pro- 
vided that a man, who now had gold in a bonded ware- 
house, should pay 50 per cent increase while he, who 
imported goods after the bill went into effect, paid only 
30 per cent increase. Johnson held that there was a 
contract between the government and the importer that 
he may take out goods from bond, on paying the amount 
of duty levied at the time of warehousing. 

When Johnson objected to exempting national bank 
stock from taxation/'' as hard upon Maryland, and un- 
necessary, since national banks would probably super- 
sede State banks and should be able to pay both National 
and State taxes, Chandler of New Hampshire said: 
"Some men have the Constitution on the brain." John- 
son at once took fire: 

We have sworn not to violate it. I too favor a liberal con- 
struction. If the Constitution leaves the State the right to 
tax and we take it away, we sin against the Constitution. The 

** Vide, speech of April i6 also. 
"On April 27. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 9 1 

States must not be bankrupted, but their cordial support must 
be given the National Government; for, only by perfect accord 
between the loyal States and Nation, can the expenses of the 
war be met. 

On April 29, he spoke to the same point and distin- 
guished the Maryland tax on a franchise of a bank, as 
in the McCulloh case,*^ from the right to tax the prop- 
erty of citizens invested in the stock of the bank and 
insisted that the case of Brown v. Maryland, in whicl? 
he had been counsel, confirmed this view. Sumner* 
asked whether this would not permit the State to tax the 
stock indirectly, though it could not tax it directly, and 
Johnson replied that it could tax the bank's real estate. 

He felt that the banks could not resume specie pay- 
ments*^ until the United States should withdraw the 
legal tender notes. "So long as the rebellion lasts," 
there can be no return of specie paying currency, John- 
son*^ was unable to see that Congress had power to fix 
the sum of the circulation, nor that to do so would be 
useful. He questioned the constitutionality of the legal 
tender notes, especially as to past debts; though he 
should have voted for the bill to issue them, feeling that 
there was a reasonable doubt in the matter. He hoped 
that the Judges would uphold their constitutionality. 

Except for the tax on State banks, he approved the 
National Bank Act as a whole, and thought the want 
of a uniform currency throughout the country had been 
a crying evil, when there was no United States Bank.'° 

*'' Johnson had been present at the argument of this case. 

*^ On May 2. 

*' Speech on May 9. 

'" On May lo, he opposed an enforcement of stockholder's liability, except 
when the assets have been ascertained to be too small. On June 4, he said the 
National Banks ought to make monthly returns, but may well pay the tax 
semi-annually. 



92 REVERDY JOHNSON 

As to the income tax, Johnson advocated exemption of 
small incomes and no increased percentage for the richer 
man.^^ In the debate on the internal revenue bill^^ ^g 
held that the federal government should not license a 
trade prohibited by the laws of a State and said that 
the States had exclusive control over lotteries.^* He 
held^* that the taxing power of the Nation was exclu- 
sively to raise revenue, except as to protecting manu- 
facturers, and that in protecting them it may prohibit. 
It is true, however, that the motive of Congress in 
passing a law can not be inquired into in a judicial pro- 
ceeding. He objected to a tax on State Bank circula- 
tion and held that such paper was not "bills of credit." 
He had no doubt that the United States could pay its 
debts and that the Nation's honor would be saved and 
felt that: 

We are just as much bound to adhere to the Constitution as 
the Courts and we are just as much violating the Constitution 
of the United States, if we do in the execution of the particular 
power, what that power was not granted to accomplish, as the 
courts would be if they sanctioned it.^* 

" On May 27. 

"On May 25 and 27. 

^' On the liquor question, Fessenden advocated a liquor tax, as men will 
sell liquor any way and without a tax the government will lose revenue. 
Johnson (vide on June 2 and 4) said that a steam boat, passing through a canal, 
pays toll and should receive credit for these tolls on the gross receipt tax. It 
throws a favorable light on Johnson's conception of legal ethics to find him 
saying that he would not draw a deed for a man without a color of title. 

^On June i. 

*^0n June 2, he spoke concerning the duty on quicksilver and the tax on 
express companies and opposed taxation of savings bank depositors. He 
referred to the taxation in Maryland of mortgages and of savings bank franchises. 
On June 6, he said that, when they had a stamp act in Maryland, they foimd 
that the stamp was rarely put on papers while they remained in the hands 
of the original parties, but only when there was a contest. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 93 

He feared that the internal revenue bill would not 
bring in as much revenue as was expected, and opposed 
taxing some articles lo per cent and others 5 per cent. 
Especially*® he objected to a specific tax on tobacco, as 
a discrimination in favor of Connecticut, as against 
Kentucky and Maryland, whose industry has been hurt 
terribly by the war, because the "Southern States, who, 
false to duty and false to honor, have left us," had taken 
away the chief market. He felt there was no want of 
patriotism in the Senate*^ but that the delays in the 
passage of the revenue bill were due to the House. 
The rise in the price of gold did not surprise him, as 
it was not an article of commerce nor was used as money, 
but he believed that the success of tJie Union arms and 
the determination to meet the country's demands by 
taxation will lead in the end to satisfactory results.*' 
He opposed an ad valorem tax on tea,*^ because of the 
difficulty in appraising it, and an import tax on railroad 
iron, as manufacturers engaged to supply the govern- 
ment can not make it, and all the railroad iron is bought 
abroad by such a corporation as the Baltimore and Ohio 
railroad, which is "comparatively a rich company. 
Notwithstanding the inroads upon this road made by 
the rebels, it has been doing an immense business and 
has been able to pay 6 per cent, besides reconstructing 
the railway, because of the peculiar loyalty of the 
road and the condition of the country, in other respects, 
which has increased, in some measure, the business." He 
felt*" that the object of the proposed tariff was more to 
raise a revenue than to give protection. A time when citi- 
zens suffered was a bad one to raise the duties, so as to 

"On June 6. "On June 3. 

^' On June 6, he spoke on warehousing, etc. 

" On June i5. '"On June 17. 



94 REVERDY JOHNSON 

prohibit or raise the price of foreign articles. Manufac- 
turers were probably never more prosperous than under 
the existing tariff and, if the people find it difficult to 
meet current expenses, they also will not be able con- 
veniently to meet the government's calls. ^* 

In the affairs of the District of Columbia he took a 
peculiar interest, differentiating it from the territories." 
When Saulsbury opposed allowing negroes to ride on 
the Washington street railway cars, Johnson said: 

If a black man proposes to ride in a first class car upon any 
of the railroads, where there is no State statute preventing it, 
he has just as much right . . to be transported 

upon that car as a white man. There is no more right to 
exclude a black man from a car designed for the transportation 
of white persons than there is a right to refuse to transport in 
a car designed for black persons, white men. 

He thought too much time was spent in discussing 
the negro question. Public judgment opposed political 
and social equality. Negroes should have all the rights 
necessary to enable them to protect life and property; 
but, "when we come to the questions of political rights 
and social enjoyment, there are other considerations 
that enter into such inquiries." Prejudice must then 
be considered. Some negroes have as much intellect 
as white men, but it would not be wise to have them 
in the Senate. ^^ "I should have no objection to ride 

*^0n June lo, he advocated payment for feeding the Winnebago Indians 
which had been done without warrant by the Interior Department and, on June 
IS, he supported an appropriation to pay Schoolcraft for copies of his Indian 
book. 

•^On February 17, he advocated paying part of the expense of its jail and 
its penitentiary prisoners to Maryland instead of to Albany. On May 24 
he opposed registration of voters in Washington on election day. Registration 
should be limited to an earlier date. 

•'He referred to Banneker, the negro mathematician and said that he did 
not eat with white men. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 95 

in a car with them, provided they were clean, and I 
have just as much objection to sitting along side of a 
dirty white man as to sitting along side of a dirty black 
man." He admitted, however, that ladies objected. 
Slaves, he added, were as a rule kindly treated, yet 
Johnson was glad that slavery is coming to an end, and, 
with Washington, he thought that it hurt the value of 
good land about the Chesapeake. Sumner well said 
of this address that Johnson, with "nimbleness of 
speech," had ranged "over a very extensive field." 

Later in the Session, the question of running street 
cars on Sunday came up and Willey of West Virginia 
said it would be contrary to the laws of God. Johnson 
replied that "it is the duty of every man to go to church 
and worship God according to his own conscience, and, 
if in the particular locality in which he happens to be, 
he can not get to church without extraneous help, there 
ought to be some mode in which he would be able to 
get to church," He cited the case of a coachman and 
horses in the country, and referred to the local condi- 
tions of this "city of magnificent distances." It is often 
difficult to understand scriptural injunctions and "we 
may make our conduct conform to their general spirit, 
but a literal construction would be inconsistent with 
the purpose which the Maker of the world intended to 
effect." Johnson further did not believe in preventing 
a working man from going to the country on Sunday. 
He had been a very hard and "incessant laboring man" 
and had found that, when he had "the promise of a 
Sunday with the privilege of going out, unafifected by 
the cares of office and engagements of my profession, 
I was the better physically, as well as morally." 

Johnson knew many parts of the country" and was 

'E.g. Key West. April ix, 1864. 



96 REVERDY JOHNSON 

especially interested in western land questions.*^ He felt 
that the public lands should be saved to help pay the 
enormous public debts, which it would require a "patri- 
otic effort to meet," and he feared to permit the Western 
States to absorb these lands, of which the Atlantic 
States had received no share. ®^ As subsidies were given 
western railroads, Johnson asked^'' why none were given 
for ships and favored one for mail service to Brazil, 
since the South American trade was formerly great and 
he felt "that our country is somewhat in dishonor, from 
the fact that it has no ocean line of steamers."®^ 

When there was a debate as to what constituted a 
constitutional quorum of the Senate,^^ Johnson said that, 
in his opinion, it was a majority of the senators elected. 
The House of Representatives is composed of members 
chosen, not of members which the States have a right 
to chose. The right to compel absent members to come 
to the session shows that only chosen persons were 
counted. It was properly held that the requirement for 
two-thirds vote of the Senate on a constitutional amend- 

**0n March 7, he defended a land grant to Lake Superior and Mississippi 
Railroad, by whose projectors he had been consulted. On March 28, he spoke 
on California land titles, especially that of the famous quicksilver mine and 
said that all such cases should go to the courts. On April 15, he favored con- 
firming the title to lands in Minnesota of one Ford, who was a bonafide pur- 
chaser of a fradulent land warrant. On April 30, he spoke on the San Ramon 
land grant in California. On May 20, he spoke on the Pacific Railroad and its 
receiving the right of eminent domain, saying that it was fair to reduce the 
damages to private owners by the beneficial effect of the road, as was done in 
assessing benefits and damages, when streets are opened in Baltimore. On 
June 7, he spoke on a land grant in New Mexico and on June 11, on Juan 
Miranda's claim. 

** See debate on Military Road in Wisconsin on June 15. 

*' On May 20. 

**0n June 18, he spoke, urging that the government keep its contract as 
to the Overland Mail. 

"'On May 4. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 97 

ment was fulfilled on March 2, 1861, when twenty- 
four voted aye and twelve voted no, although twenty- 
four was not two-thirds of the entire Senate. The 
Government must go on and the South is kept by itself 
alone from electing senators. The Union stands upon 
the strength of the loyal States, and if the South left 
the Union, would still stand, represented in her remain- 
ing States. The Constitution does not require every 
State entering the Union to remain there forever, that 
the Union may continue. Garrett Davis retorted that 
the courts may disagree with Johnson, who brightly 
replied: "That may be. They have often done so, very 
much to the disappointment of my clients." 

On May 10, he spoke in favor of a bill, of which he 
had charge, concerning proceedings in criminal cases, 
in which the United States were allowed peremptory 
challenge in trials for treason and said that he had acted 
as prosecutor, and more often in the defense, and felt 
it a gross injustice that the government had not pre- 
viously possessed such privileges. He favored permit- 
ting the accused person to waive a jury trial, a practice 
which had been found to work well in Maryland.'" 

^"Miscellaneous speeches of his are those: on March 8, defending General 
Curtis, whom he had known in the Peace Conference, from charges of cotton 
speculation; on March 15, objecting to the appointment of twenty-five consular 
pupils at a salary of $1,000 each and favoring the appointment of a minister 
plenipotentiary instead of a minister resident at Brussels, since the King of 
Belgium had been very friendly and had sent a plenipotentiary; on April 8, 
urging that Illinois be required to cede jurisdiction over the site of the Rock 
Island arsenal and stating that eminent domain is in the United States as inci- 
dental to other powers; on June 7, advocating the printing in the Congressional 
Globe only what is said in Congress; and on June 18, moving adjournment, 
when Trumbull and Fessenden had engaged in a heated argument and saying: 
"We are aU of us, more or less, at times, under the control of impulses and 
we have, all of us, at times, uttered, in a moment of excitement, what we 
afterwards, upon cooler reflection, much regret." 



98 REVERDY JOHNSON 

When Congress assembled in December, 1864, it was 
evident that the fall of the Confederacy was close at 
hand. Johnson's first speech of the session was deliv- 
ered on December 18, upon the defense of the Northern 
frontier, where the St. Alban's raid had recently occurred. 
He believed that the governments of Canada and of 
Great Britain would try to observe neutrality and that, 
doubtless, under the law of nations, if such raids con- 
tinue and the raiders cannot be arrested in the United 
States, they may be pursued into the adjoining foreign 
territory." The judge who released the St. Alban's 
raiders acted wrongly and it is proper that we should 
prevent the repetition of such acts, or vindicate our- 
selves against such "acts of piratical warfare, thieving 
and murder." It is interesting to notice that Johnson 
expressed himself as approving of the surrender of Mason 
and Slidell and as thinking that the act of July, 1861, 
and the prize cases showed that Great Britain did not 
act too speedily in recognizing the rebels as belligerents.'* 

He was as eager as ever that the war should be ended 
•successfully and favored immediate action,'^ without 
reference to a committee, on a resolution of thanks to 
General Sherman. 

Not only was the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta 
most unrivalled for the gallantry and skill displayed and its 
successful termination, but the progress of the march from 
Atlanta through Georgia, a distance of three hundred miles, 
with an army of fifty or sixty thousand men, without losing 
a man hardly, and finally capturing the city of Savannah, 
without firing a gun, will, in the history of military affairs 

'1 " I believe that right is just as firmly settled as any other question can be 
settled by the law of nations." 

'2 On January 5, he protested against including a provision for brevet rank 
in a bill to naturalize foreigners in the army. 

"On January 6, 1865. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 99 

the world over, be considered, not only as without example, 
but as an achievement that the imagination of man in advance 
hardly thought to be possible. 

The brilliant and successful termination of the Georgia 
campaign seemed to "have brought about very strong 
grounds for believing that it will contribute very largely 
in putting an end to the rebellion." 

He reiterated his position^* against manumitting the 
families of slaves who enlisted in the army. He had 
been so anxious to abolish slavery that he voted against 
referring the Thirteenth Amendment to the Judiciary 
Committee and he did not wish the families to remain 
in slavery, but thought it not in the power of Congress 
to free them by act. He had never doubted the power 
to raise negro armies; for, "whether he was slave or 
free," the negro "held the relation of citizen, owing an 
allegiance to the United States" and so was subject to 
a call to arms. There had been no difficulty In obtain- 
ing black soldiers in Maryland, by voluntary or com- 
pulsory enlistment, and they had already shown them- 
selves "gallant and efficient." Congress had no power 
to destroy slavery in loyal States. In reply to Wade's 
desire that the war be continued for thirty years, if 
necessary, till slavery was entirely abolished, Johnson 
said, "I dislike the Institution just as much as he does 
or can. I think it is attended with the most dire of 
evils, that It is disadvantageous to the master and keeps 
the slave In a condition In which no man should be 
placed, demoralizes him, renders him incapable of know- 
ing what moral duty Is, debars him of the privilege of 
ascertaining what Christian duty Is, closes the Bible to 
him and closes every variety of knowledge, from neces- 

^* On January 9. 



100 REVERDY JOHNSON 

sity." Yet he would terminate the war at once, if he 
could, believing that "in the retributive justice of heaven, 
the institution is mortally wounded now," for the South, 
"must have seen what an element of weakness it is in 
war." Suggestions are already made there to abolish it 
and thus obtain foreign assistance. Johnson does not 
wish to see the "Union dissevered, the work of our 
fathers gone, our former glory never again to be repeated, 
and (as is certain to be the result) every ten or fifteen 
or twenty years, a war between the conterminous 
countries." He agreed with Lincoln in hoping for peace. 
There is a step beyond which "loyalty would become 
barbarity. The South, God knows, has suffered enough. 
They have invited it. The people now, as we have 
every reason to believe, see that they have been misled 
through the arts, wickedness, and insin- 
cerity of the madmen by whom the rebellion was inaugu- 
rated." It is time to hold out the olive branch and 
make the Nation, " potentially, one of the greatest powers 
upon the face of the habitable globe." He believed that 
abolition of slavery, by constitutional enactment, would 
not be an impediment to a successful peace, but that 
such a step would "tend to strengthen the government 
and greatly increase the chances of an early restoration 
of the Union." He had no doubt of the result, if we 
are true to ourselves and wish the country "peopled 
by freemen alone." As to the leaders of the South, 
"if Toombs, Davis, and the others should come here, 
they ought to be indicted for treason instead of being 
admitted" to Congress.'^ 

Johnson's clear views as to the war powers of the 
President were shown ^^ in the debate on naval forces 

'^ Wade significantly said: "If they will throw down their arms, we will 
govern them, until they do right." 
'*0n January i8. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 10 1 

on the Great Lakes. It was proposed by the com- 
mittee, unanimously, that the treaty of 1817 with Great 
Britain, limiting such forces, be terminated and the 
question arose whether the President had authority to 
give such notice, antecedent to Congressional action. 
Johnson maintained that he had the authority, for for- 
eign nations know only the Executive and "have a right 
to suppose that what he does in behalf of the United 
States he does under some proper authority." He cited 
Hamilton's Pacificus Letters and said that England, 
doubtless, thought that Lincoln had the right to issue 
his proclamation of the preceding 23rd of November 
and so replied that putting an end to the treaty was not 
considered an unfriendly act. Congress may confirm 
his act by subsequent ratification. Davis of Kentucky 
asked whether war would date from a President's proc- 
lamation, if he should declare it and Congress ratify his 
act three weeks later, and Johnson answered affirma- 
tively, adding that war is an existing fact, a "prosecu- 
tion of some supposed right by force," and the Presi- 
dent's right to carry on war against invasion, without 
an antecedent act of Congress, is clear, although his 
act needs Congressional ratification. In the Prize Cases, 
the court admitted that every belligerent act existed 
after July 13, 1861, but the rebels had declared war 
before that day. 

He opposed strongly retaliation on rebel prisoners for 
the ill treatment of the Union soldiers held prisoners," 
except in future cases and then, without allowing cruelty, 
as it would deprive us of the "support of the God of 
justice." Success in such a contest would be infamy. 
Retaliation should be limited at the point of cruelty, 
as Lieber provided. To bum prisoners, even if the 
Confederates did so, would be inexcusable, though such 

'^On January 26, 27, 28. 



102 REVERDY JOHNSON 

conduct found a defender in the heat of debate. Ex- 
change of prisoners had been brought about between 
nations by Christianity and Johnson thought we ought 
to negotiate for exchange, leaving "the rebel govern- 
ment, if they have resorted to the enormities stated in 
this resolution, as I have no doubt they have, to the 
judgment of the civilized world, which will pronounce 
a judgment of infamy against all who are concerned in 
them." If Lincoln had refused to exchange prisoners, 
on the "ground that the enemy would not deliver the 
Africans whom they have taken in battle, while they 
were willing to exchange" white soldiers, or because an 
exchange "would inure more to the benefit of the enemy, 
he has perpetrated a high crime against the soldiers." 
"The black is in no worse condition by rescuing the 
white," but is better off, for such rescue replenishes the 
Federal army. As a general rule Congress had the 
power over the exchange and treatment of prisoners ; but 
the President, without legislation, might retaliate to the 
extent of the law of nations and even commanding 
officers had certain powers of retaliation, as Washing- 
ton's and Jackson's acts showed. If the rebels refuse 
to exchange black soldiers, Johnson advocated keeping 
Confederate prisoners, man for man, so as not to aban- 
don the negroes, but he would also keep the obligation 
to our white soldiers. He "would go as far as any 
Senator in protecting any black man, who might be 
enlisted into the service of the United States and shoul- 
dered his musket to protect the rights of the United 
States."7« 

"On February 6, he opposed diminution of punishment for one who en- 
listed an insane person. On February 7, he opposed a graded tax on incomes, 
to pay bounties, as making a distinction between rich and poor and as being 
"class legislation, .... always mischievous and .... defec- 
tive in principle." On February 18, he spoke in reference to paying the Illinois 



^EVERDY JOHNSON IO3 

Late in the session,'^ he spoke in opposition to the 
bill creating the F-'eedmen's Bureau, as it made no 
provision for white refugees*" nor for trial by jury in 
certain cases and was unconstitutional in declaring that 
certain officers shall be deemed to be in the military 
service of the United States, so as to "be liable to trial 
by courts martial." 

On the questions especially dealing with the Border 
States, he spoke several times at this session. He ob- 
jected to the seizure, incarceration, and punishment of 
any citizen without a trial and protested against the 
misconduct of subordinates, who arrested the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor and a presidential elector in Kentucky, 
and of the military, who, seeming to think they are not 
bound to obey State or National laws, had disregarded 
in Maryland the statute providing that persons not 
liable to military control should be turned over to a 
civil tribunal.*^ "It may be ... . that, upon 
the ground of military necessity, in the beginning of 

Central Railroad for transporting troops. On February 24, he advocated 
fortification of ports, especially of San Francisco, as we might get into a foreign 
war and our experience with Forts Fisher and Sumter showed that iron clad 
vessels can not take all forts. 

"On February 22. 

*' He showed resentment, when Sumner appealed to him to be just. 

*' For example, at the election on the adoption of the new Constitution in 
Caroline County, a Union man took the oaths but was refused a vote and when 
he sued the election officers, he was thrown into jail in Baltimore. The elec- 
tion gave a majority to the Democrats in the legislature and one timid mem- 
ber from a county was threatened with arrest, if he did not resign and did so. 
In Somerset County, a Democrat, who received a majority of over three hundred 
votes, also received a polite letter from Major General Lew Wallace, asking 
him whether he thought it well to take his seat in the legislature, as he had 
raised a rebel flag on his premises in 1861. He denied this, was arrested, 
taken to Baltimore, thrown into an old slave prison without bed clothing to 
lie upon and was sent South on the next day. Appeal was made to Lincoln, 
who telegraphed that no action be taken against the man, but was answered 
that he had already been sent South. Johnson expressed confidence in Lincoln. 



104 REVERDY JOHNSON 

this dreadful war, aiming as It did at the very Hfe of 
the nation, these arrests were unavoidable; but, thank 
God, it is not so now, thank God, it seems now to be 
approaching its end and the end will be the restoration 
of the Union." In suppressing the rebellion, the rights 
of the loyal citizen should be preserved. ^^ 

In spite of his action In behalf of suspected persons, 
Johnson's vigor In supporting the Union led hlm,^* in 
speaking to a motion asking Lincoln for information as 
to a peace mission to Richmond, to refer to "the rebel 
authorities, for speaking on the floor of the Senate, I 
have called them nothing but rebels and shall continue 
to call them so, until they prove themselves able to 
establish their independence." At times, he would even 
yield to the opinion of more radical Senators, as when 
he voted yea, following Sumner's lead, on a bill for an 
ironclad oath to be taken by lawyers, though he thought 
it unnecessary to prescribe the oath for them alone and 
not for men of other professions. So too, together with 
Lyman Trumbull, he supported Lincoln's reconstruc- 
tion policy in Louisiana.^* The Committee on the Judi- 
ciary thought that the new State government could not 
be recognized except by act of Congress, and that the 
Executive had no power to "bring the State back under 
the Constitution." They also objected to the institu- 
tion of the constitutional proceedings by the military 
authorities. This, Johnson admitted to be a bad prece- 
dent; but, no "matter how the proceedings were insti- 
tuted, If, in point of fact, the people of the State did 
act voluntarily and were competent to act under the 

*^ So on February 8, he said postmasters ought not be allowed to break 
seals and take anything whatever out of the mails. 
" On January 3 1 . 
"^ Vide 5 Rhodes U. S. 56. 



REVERDY JOHNSON IO5 

original constitution and were authorized to act by being 
loyal at the time they did act, it is the duty of the 
Government of the United States to receive them back." 
Only 14,000 voted of the 51,000 voting population, but 
no loyal man was excluded from voting. So many 
Louisianians had volunteered in the rebel army that 
those who voted might easily be a majority of the 
active voters. In a long and able speech, Johnson dis- 
cussed the relation of the loyal citizens of Louisiana to 
the Nation, after the act of secession. They did not 
cease to be citizens of the United States, but were en- 
titled to protection and had forfeited no rights. They 
were kept by force from expressing their opinion, but, 
when protected, should be allowed to vote. If the 
ordinance of secession did not carry the State out of the 
Union, the loyal people should exercise the sovereign 
authority belonging to the State. There is no other 
way for them to come back, the United States cannot 
interfere with the State suffrage laws, even in the Wes- 
tern States, which admitted to the polls inhabitants not 
yet citizens. "If coming together, the loyal men" did 
an act which they would have been authorized to do, 
provided they had come forward voluntarily, we ought 
to receive their act, though done under military author- 
ity. Maryland had adopted a constitution manumitting 
slaves, of which no man in Maryland seriously questions 
the obligation, but it was adopted by the exclusion of 
a good many entitled to vote. A State has several 
meanings, and one of them certainly is the people. 
Sumner said the States should be governed as Prov- 
inces. What then becomes of the loyal citizens? 

It is the American doctrine that the people have a right, as 
against the government, to meet and establish a government 
for themselves. If it is not in accordance with the Consti* 



I06 REVERDY JOHNSON 

tution, Congress need not accept it, but, when a State is ad- 
mitted on an equality with other States, it has a right to change 
its constitution and a seceded State is not equal to Massachu- 
setts, if the former may not come back without negro suffrage. 

Sumner asked, if Ohio could repeal the Ordinance of 
1787, and Johnson replied in the affirmative that Ohio 
could enslave her fellowmen as well as Massachusetts. 
Sumner hotly answered that "Massachusetts cannot do 
an act of injustice," and Johnson retorted that she had 
done so and instanced her giving the vote, which pre- 
vented the abolition of the foreign slave trade before 
1808. Henderson remarked that the education clause 
of the Massachusetts constitution would prevent most of 
the negroes from voting in Louisiana and Johnson con- 
tinued: "If Massachusetts had such negroes, lost in 
ignorance, divested more or less of moral sense, because 
of the horrid condition, in which they have been kept, 
knowing not what the laws of God require, because they 
have been kept in a state of ignorance," Massachusetts 
would exclude them from suffrage. Maryland had just 
emancipated one-third of its population. To give the 
freedmen the vote would place Maryland in the hands 
of an ignorant population. The traitorous rebels are 
organizing negro troops, shall these vote, or be treated 
as the disloyal whites? By the new constitution of 
Louisiana, slaves are legally emancipated. If the pend- 
ing resolve does not pass, their freedom will depend on 
the presidential proclamation, whose operation beyond 
our lines is more than doubtful. 

Sumner then inquired, whether Johnson questioned 
the affirmation by the Supreme Court of the validity of 
the proclamation over all the Slave States. Johnson 
crossed the aisle to answer and, with more than usual 
loudness of voice, said that he did doubt it, but that, 



REVERDY JOHNSON lOJ 

Southern man as he was, he wished slavery destroyed 
and then the authority of the Union would never be 
destroyed.*^ The great difference between the Confed- 
eration and the Constitution was the want of an author- 
ity under the former to make its powers eflficient and 
to act on the individual citizen, instead of on the State. 
Reconstruction should be accomplished quickly and the 
negroes, suddenly emancipated, should not vote now. 
If they are given the suffrage, "the whole of that vote 
will for years be in the hands of a few white men."'^ 

On the last day of the Session, when a proposition 
was made to punish the Southern sympathizers known 
as copperheads, by military tribunal, Johnson asked 
whether this was not a violation of the Fifth Amendment 
to the Constitution. The treatment of a spy in a loyal 
State was an exception. The filling of the military 
prisons in Baltimore with prisoners not notified of their 
offense is wrong, while to say "that every citizen of the 
United States is to be dragged before a military tribunal 
is to say that our fathers fought during the Revolution 
in vain." 

Though Johnson had opposed Lincoln's reelection, he 
gave him the benefit of the presumption that he would 
not keep in the service any one unnecessarily and felt 
that it would be indecorous to overrule his determina- 
tion.^^ Upon the counting of the electoral votes, he 
said that^^ he thought Congress had power to legislate 

** During this speech, he had a colloquy with Sumner on Washington's 
pKJsition and that of the members of the Convention of 1787 as to the "con- 
solidation of the Union." 

*'The sovereignty of the State in subjects left to it, such as marriage, is 
still its own though limited, see McCulloch v. Mar>'land and Marshall v. 
Lewis. 

'' In the debate on dropping unemployed generals from the rolls on January 
6. 

** On February 2. 



I08 REVERDY JOHNSON 

in prohibition of the counting of votes from States in 
iUbelHon. Congress had not provided a way of decid- 
ing contested elections, but has the power to do so. 
The Vice-President cannot exclude any votes. The 
"efforts cf^jhose rebellious citizens to take those several 
States out of the Union are legally imperfect," but have 
put the States "in a state of rebellion" and "at war 
with the UniteQ States." These States cannot vote, 
as those citizens of Maine coiild not who were under 
British power in 1812, Probably, if all the inhabitants 
of those States threw down their arms, and admitted 
their allegiance to the United States, the States would 
be entitled to seats in the Senate, but that is not the 
present question. Having "got rid of the disturbing 
element of slavery," the prospect was good for the 
"perpetuity of the Union." In a second speech^* John- 
son said that, though the act of 1861 did not name the 
rebel States, they are named in the presidential proc- 
lamation thereunder and, therefore, have no right to 
choose electors. By like proclamation, Lincoln can say 
the rebellion is terminated and the States, which have 
never been out of the Union in a constitutional sense, 
then cease to be in rebellion, without waiting for Con- 
gressional action. If, at election time, rebellion should 
have been terminated and the authority of the Constitu- 
tion reinstated, the States, are entitled to representation 
in Electoral College or Congress. "The moment the 
hostility ceases, then the commercial intercourse begins 
again and, that beginning, the State is back in the Union 
for all purposes." A war may terminate before a treaty 
of peace is made. "Congress has no constitutional 
right to carry on a war against States, but may suppress 
insurrection which amounts to war." If the South is 

'*0a February 3. 



REVERDY JOHNSON IO9 

willing to come back and abide by the decision of the 
majority as to slavery, it would be murder for the 
President to authorize another man to be shot. The 
"terrible, most pestilent, destructive heresy" of secession 
was most earnestly entertained by many Southerners, 
who thought they were right. Even Lincoln himself, 
when a Congressman, had seemed to entertain it. The 
Southerners had "been made to see that the resolution 
of the country is so perfect, the devotion to the Union 
is so absolute, that happen what will, we of the loyal 
States mean to prosecute the war to the end, until the 
insurrection is put down, which has no other foundation, 
in point of law, than the assumed right of secession." 
The President has the power to pardon and it is proper 
he should, when such men come to him saying they 
sinned: as A. H. Stephens, who denounced secession and 
predicted its evils; Hunter, who never was party to it; 
or Justice Campbell, who, in the Supreme Court, 
"thought it the vilest heresy that ever entered into the 
imagination of man, but was carried away by circum- 
stances surrounding him."^'' However,^^ when Lincoln 
signed a resolve as to representation in the electoral 
college, with a denial of the right to such legislative 
power in Congress, Johnson differed with him and said 
that Lincoln was wrong in point of law and^^ that he 
had no right to read Congress a lecture. Keen to defend 
the right of Congress,^* he said that it was also a mis- 

^^ On February 4, he replied to Collamer of Rhode Island, showing that 
Madison in the Federal Convention was an authority against war being made 
upon a State. On February 6, the Senate voted to count the electoral votes, 
but the House would not, so the vote failed. 

^^ On February g. 

'^ He reflected on Congress, as he did in his comment on the Davis-Wade 
bill. 

" On February 7. 



no REVERDY JOHNSON 

take for Lincoln to sign the Thirteenth Amendment, for 
the "object of the constitutional provision on the sub- 
ject is simply to initiate a mode, by which the people 
shall decide whether there shall be an amendment to 
the Constitution or not." The two-third vote needed 
to pass the amendment is the same as that required to 
pass a bill over the presidential veto and it is "evident 
that what was intended to be submitted to the Presi- 
dent was a question, which was to be passed upon by 
more votes than were necessary, before it was sub- 
mitted." Previous practice and an opinion of the Su- 
preme Court in 1794 confirmed his opinion.^'' 

Financial measures did not cause him to make a long 
speech at this Session, ^^ but he spoke several times upon 
the internal revenue bill, opposing a tax on State bank 
notes'* and a graded tax on incomes to pay bounties." 
He opposed a tax on sales, as one which fell ultimately 
on the consumer and which was odious, because a govern- 
ment officer would have to go monthly into each busi- 
ness house. ^^ 

He favored, however, ^^ a tax on book publishing, as 
a tax not on knowledge, but on business. On law books, 

'^On March 3, he said that an answer of the Assistant Secretary of Navy 
to a Senatorial request was out of place, again showing his zeal for the privilege 
of the body. 

'* On December 2 1 , Johnson said that the principle of the proposed internal 
revenue act was altogether wrong and that a man should be given time to 
straighten out the whiskey tax. On March 2, he remarked that fertilizers should 
not be taxed too heavily, for such tax falls on the agriculturists. On February 
28, he said that the difference between the nominal and the market value of 
gold should be considered as income and as a proper profit, but that a man who 
kept the gold should not be taxed on the inflated value. 

^* On March i . 

" The poor man had no right to say to the rich, pay me for entering the 
army. On February 7. 

"On March i. 

*• On February 27. 



REVERDY JOHNSON III 

" it comes first out of the lawyers; but, perhaps, it comes 
out of the client. If the client does not pay it in advance, 
the client who comes next pays it. I speak from some 
little experience." So long as American consumers are 
taxed by an import tax on imported books, it is not 
unjust to make an American manufacturer pay for the 
privilege. ^"^ 

On January 19, Johnson delivered a long legal speech 
on a bill to regulate commerce among the States. Pre- 
viously, it had been admitted that the State had exclu- 
sive control over internal commerce, but Johnson thought 
this bill limited it. The power to establish post roads 
meant only to designate existing roads, not to build 
new ones. When, in 1800, the Cumberland road was 
begun to be built from the proceeds of the sales of 
public lands, it was claimed that Congress could appro- 
priate money for any purpose material to the common 
defense and the general welfare. Monroe, however, was 
right in his veto of a road bill in 1822, saying that it 
was not an independent power. The only guarantee 
against an abuse of the appropriating power was the 
appeal to the people, which also guarded against abuse 
of the taxing power.^"^ Judge McLean denied Congres- 
sional power to construct the Rock Island bridge over 
navigable water. The proposed bill alters franchises of 
railroads and denies the State the power to make roads 
as she pleases, since it permits the railroads to carry 

•""He doubted as to whether bonds and notes (on March i) issued under 
the new loan bill would not inflate the currency and lower the standard of value 
still more. On advocating a bill for repayment of $2,000 to H. A. Bingham, 
a paymaster, who had to pay the government that amount which had dis- 
appeared while in his custody, Johnson said, on January 19, "Very few men 
think of counting their money. I am one of the reckless ones and I never think 
of it, though I do not know that I have ever been taken in." 

1" He quoted a number of decisions. 



112 REVERDY JOHNSON 

troops, freight, etc. Maryland is a quasi-corporator of the 
Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
and this measure involves a "principle which is destruc- 
tive of the sovereignty" of the States. If the courts 
support it, the authority of the States is submitted to 
the unlimited power of Congress. 

We are sent here to take care, among others, of the rights 
of our States. Our oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States is not merely to execute all the powers which 
it confers, but to abstain from exerting any powers which it does 
not confer, .... in order to protect the inherent, and 
original, and undelegated powers which belonged to the 
States before the Constitution was adopted. ^"^ 

When the Senators from Nevada appeared, Johnson 
advocated their admission and that of their State, al- 
though they had been elected in advance of the admis- 
sion of the State into the Union, following the precedent 
of the first Senators of Missouri, Michigan and Cali- 
fornia.^"' 

In discussing the legislative appropriation bill, the 
question of the amendment of money bills came up 
and Johnson advocated the Senate's using its utmost 
power, referring to the precedent of 1856. Sumner re- 
plied that this precedent was of no value, for the men 
who made it were rebels. Johnson replied : "They were 
able men and one of them, Brodhead, was a friend of 
mine, who labored for the Union and, in professional 

i<'*On District of Columbia matters, he spoke to advocate the grant of a 
wharf privilege to a ferry company (on January 17). The bed of the river is 
the property of individual owners, who hold riparian land; but, on navigable 
streams, no one has a right to go to the thread of the stream, without consent 
of the sovereign. Similar wharf privilege was given in Baltimore. He opposed, 
in vain, the visitation of the institution of the Sisters of Mercy by public offi- 
cials (on February 11.). 

^''On February i. 



REVERDY JOHNSON II3 

ability, was Sumner's equal. He was a Democrat always 
and a pure patriot." Sumner could only respond: "I 
shall not follow Reverdy Johnson. "^^* 

Johnson's devotion to friends was also shown, on 
February 23, in his defence of Taney, when a bust of 
the Chief Justice was proposed to be placed in the 
Supreme Court. Reference to this defence of Taney's 
"great ability and moral worth" has been elsewhere 
made. Johnson lost his temper and became personal 
in his discussion of the Dred Scott decision, which came 
into the debate. ^°^ Blaine wrote^"^ that Johnson's de- 
fense of Taney showed "that amplitude and readiness, 
which Mr. Johnson displayed in every discussion involv- 
ing legal principles." 

On February 15, Johnson announced that his colleague 
from Maryland had died on the 13th at 7 a.m. He had 
been paralyzed on the day before and lay speechless 
but conscious, nearly to the end. Governor Hicks, "a 
title by which he is best known and will be ever grate- 
fully remembered, not only by Maryland but by the 
Nation," was eulogized by Johnson as a Christian, 
beloved by his friends, "ever courteous, kind, and atten- 
tive," possessing "the esteem and confidence of us all, 
endowed with a sound judgment and animated by a 
fervent patriotism."^"' As Governor, "his responsi- 

^^ On February lo. 

1*'* Trumbull, McDougall, Carlile favored the motion and Sumner, Hale, 
Wilson, Wade opposed it. Five days later, Johnson in the debate on the cotton 
drawback was asked to speak louder and said that objection was sometimes 
made that he spoke too loud. 

106 twenty years in Congress 135. 

"■'Thomas Holliday Hicks was born in Dorchester County, September 2, 
1798, one of a large family with limited means. After studying in the common 
schools, he helped his father on the farm. Entering public life as a constable 
in 1824, he next became sheriff and then opened a store at Vienna. He was 
a member of the Electoral College for the State Senate in 1836 and "evinced 



114 REVERDY JOHNSON 

bility was such as to task his firmness and his judgment 
and to test his patriotism. They proved equal to this 
emergency." The people of the State, for a time, forgot 

the paramount duty, which they owed to the General Govern- 
ment .... In this interval of temporary forgetful- 
ness, an excitement amounting to madness threatened the 
State with a fraternal war and with driving her into the rebel- 
lion, that would have made her soil the battleground of the 
strife which has deluged every seceding State in blood and 
would certainly have involved her in ruin. Against every 
effort that ignorance or ambition could essay to effect the 
insane and wicked purpose, Governor Hicks interposed the 
whole power of his office and succeeded in defeating it. Nor 
was this accomplished without personal peril. In April, 1861, 
when the blood of the loyal soldiers of Massachusetts was 
treasonably shed in the streets of our chief city and its power 
for some days was wielded by men who for the most part 
were resolved on rushing the State into rebellion, it was obvious, 
to those who w^itnessed the scenes of the day and moved among 
the parties who engaged in them, that Governor Hicks was an 
object of such intense animosity, that his safety was not as- 
sured In these trying moments, the Governor 

was true to his duty. Throughout his term of office, he devoted 
himself with untiring industry and an ever watchful patriotism, 
by every legal means, to crush out the spirit of secession and 
to retain the State in her allegiance to the Union and he suc- 
ceeded. When he ceased to be her Governor, she was loyal 
in all the departments of her government and the people, by 
a voice approaching unanimity, proclaimed their fixed resolve 
to stand by the Union, not only as a matter of almost holy 
duty, but as indispensable to their safety and prosperity and 

an inherent love of law and order." He then served in the Governor's Council, 
as Member of the House of Delegates, as Register of WiUs in his County, and 
as member of the Constitutional Convention in 1850. He was chosen Governor 
on the Know Nothing ticket in 1859 ^^^d, at the conclusion of his term, became 
United States Senator. 



REVERDY JOHNSON II5 

SO she and they have been ever since. It is not going too far 
to declare that this result is in a great measure to be referred 
to the conduct of Governor Hicks.^^^ 

When Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson served as 
one of the pallbearers^"^ on the part of the Senate, but 
a month later, on May 13, he appeared without com- 
pensation as one of the counsel for Mrs. Surratt, who 
was tried by military commission for complicity in the 
murder of the President. He had never seen Mrs. 
Surratt until the day before his appearance for her, but 
said he felt it was due to the legal profession that she 
should not go undefended."" His appearance was ob- 
jected to, on the ground that he did "not recognize the 
moral obligation of an oath that is designed as a test of 
loyalty." Johnson repudiated the charge, which was 
based on his letter with reference to the Maryland elec- 
tions of 1864. Although allowed to appear, he was 
present only at rare intervals throughout the trial and 
sent in his final written argument to be read by his 
junior associate, denying the jurisdiction of the Court 
and asserting the illegality of military commissions in 
the United States. He did not seek immunity for any- 

'"^ Senator Hale added that Hicks was second to none on the proud roll of 
fame, "of those by whose clear sagacity, unshaken firmness, and patriotic 
devotion to duty in a great crisis of our country's history, her integrity was 
preserved and her ultimate triumph secured." Hale had served on the Naval 
.\fTairs Committee with Hicks and had "never met a more kind, genial and 
courteous gentleman." He preferred to have his own people abolish slavery 
and was an antislavery man. Willey of West Virginia voiced the gratitude of 
his State and said: "I never knew a man whose simplicity and singleness of 
purpose, whose evident sincerity, purity and unselfishness of aim to promote 
the honor and welfare of his country, commanded more of my confidence and 

respect He ever appeared to forget himself in the higher and 

holier purpose of securing the public good." 

109 YVar of Rebellion Off. Recs. Serial 97, Ser. i, Vol. 46, pt. 3, p. 807. 

""Vide DeWitt Judicial Murder of Mrs. Surratt, pp. 41, 73, 85, and T. 
M. Harris's Assassination of Lincoln, pp. 107, iii, 327. 



Il6 REVERDY JOHNSON 

one guilty of the "horrid crimes," but claimed that the 
trial should proceed before the civil courts."^ 

In his argument, Johnson declared that he believed 
the evidence against Mrs. Surratt was suspicious and 
that she was innocent of the assassination, which "in 
the black catalogue of offences .... will for- 
ever be esteemed the darkest and deepest ever committed 
by sinful man." For such a commission to have juris- 
diction, a military offence must be made to appear, the 
offender must be subject to military law, and the mili- 
tary law must provide for trial and punishment by a 
military tribunal. These circumstances were not found 
here and the commission could not be justified as an 
Incident of the war power, for the creation of a court 
is a legislative function and the President cannot sus- 
pend courts, as he can the writ of habeas corpus. The 
case is not military treason, as the accused were not, in 
the belligerent sense, enemies. The "continuance of 
our government does not depend on the lives of any 
or all of Its public servants" and the "folly of the mad- 
man and the fiend" In killing Lincoln will not destroy the 
nation. In England, persons who tried to assassinate 
the monarch have been tried by the civil tribunals. ^^ 

Following out a similar line of argument, Johnson 
appeared before the Supreme Court In Ex parte Milligan 
and there won his case. He also acted with Matthew 
Carpenter and A. H. Garland, at the request of the 
latter, in Ex parte Garland, in which case the ex post 
facto oath was declared unconstitutional.^^' In July 
1865, Garland, who had been admitted to the Supreme 
Court on Johnson's motion In i860, came to Washington 

'" His argument was printed at Baltimore in pamphlet form in 1865, pp. 31. 
"* H. L. Bond and Peckham of N. Y. were against him. 
"' Vide Garland's Experiences in the Supreme Court. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 11/ 

and procured a pardon, in which application he was 
seconded by the "efforts of my constant and steady 
friend" Johnson, the "big hearted, large brained and 
generous man and friend." During that visit to the 
national capital, Garland formed the idea of asking to 
be admitted to practice, notwithstanding the test oath, 
and Johnson gladly aided him without any fee,"* being 
interested in the case both from its constitutional aspect 
and from his friendship for the younger man. B. R. 
Curtis expressed himself as satisfied of the soundness of 
Johnson's argument against the test oath"^ and added, 
"certainly, it is put with great clearness and force before 
the Court." About the same time, Johnson, with Mont- 
gomery Blair and David Dudley Field, was successful 
in the Supreme Court in defending a Roman Catholic 
priest, named Cummings, who had preached in Missouri, 
without taking the iron clad oath."^ 

"^ Speed and Stansberry were the opposing lawyers. 
"' I B. R. Curtis Life 370, July 8, 1866. 
"'Vide Cox, Three Decades 251. 



CHAPTER V 

THE THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS AND RECONSTRUCTION 

(1865-67) 

In this great Congress, Johnson's career was most 
conspicuous. Sitting on the right of the Vice-President's 
Chair and in the row of seats nearest his desk, Johnson 
was one of the most prominent figures in the house. ^ 
He was "perhaps the most eminent lawyer in a body, 
where legal ability always commands much respect,* 
and he showed that his mind had lost none of its force 
and power, though he was now about seventy years of 
age. He was the oldest member of the body, in years, 
if not in service, and his conciliatory disposition and 
friendly relations with all the members did much to in- 
crease the efficiency of his leadership of the minority. 
Hon. George H. Williams of Oregon, one of the last sur- 
vivors of the Senators who served with Johnson, wrote 
thus of him on May 9, 1906: 

I was admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of the 
United States on the motion of Mr. Reverdy Johnson and was 
with him in the Senate. Mr. Johnson was an exceedingly 
amiable and accomplished gentleman, a lawyer observing the 
dignity of the Senate and the civilities of social intercourse. 
He was a great lawyer and had a remarkable and accurate 
knowledge of the decisions of the Courts at his command. He 
was a frequent speaker in the Senate and a ready debater 

1 W. H. Barnes, History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, p. 24. An engraving 
of Johnson is opposite p. 203. 

*W. G. Brown, Thirty-ninth Congress, 97 Atlantic Monthly 466. At p. 
473, Brown writes "So long as the discussion concerned itself with theory," 
Johnson "could hold his own with Fessenden and Trumbull. He could more 
than hold his own with Sumner, who was never strong on legal questions." 

118 



REVERDY JOHNSON II9 

upon almost all the questions that arose in that body. He 
was a Democrat and I was a Republican and, consequently, 
we did not agree upon most of the subjects growing out of 
the Reconstruction policy of Congress and other party ques- 
tions, but there was nothing in these differences to disturb our 
personal relations. I had an impression of Mr. Johnson that 
he was not a man of very strong convictions and that he could 
speak with equal readiness and facility upon one side of a 
question, as upon the other, and that he was not very particu- 
lar as to which side he espoused. I may have misjudged him 
in this respect, but such was my impression. He was particu- 
larly at home upon all constitutional and legal questions and 
always brought learning, ability, and skill to the discussion 
of such questions. He was quite blind, while he was in the 
Senate and had to depend largely upon his memory, which was 
evidently a storehouse full of the learning of the law. 

On reconstruction, Johnson's policy consistently fav- 
ored restoration of the Southern States with amnesty 
to their citizens. He cited the proceedings of all depart- 
ments of the government during the war and of the judi- 
cial and executive departments later, as proving that 
States were not out of the Union. The citizens' dis- 
loyalty could not carry the States with them and, at 
the moment when resistance was abandoned, the author- 
ity of the United States was reinstated. When the 
Fourteenth Amendment was presented, Johnson op- 
posed it, although he favored certain provisions in it, 
as he thought there ought to be a constitutional defini- 
tion of citizenship in the United States and believed that 
negroes would be citizens, but for the decision in the Dred 
Scott case. He held that the phrase, "All men are cre- 
ated equal," included negroes, but that only a juristic 
equality was meant and that political and social equality 
should be excluded. He believed in the possibilities 
of the negro, but opposed granting him the suffrage, at 



120 REVERDY JOHNSON 

present, or the deprivation of representation from the 
Southern States, on the ground that negroes did not 
vote there. He believed negroes should be counted in for 
representative purposes, as women were. Suffrage, he 
thought, was not an inalienable right, but a privilege, 
which the government may grant or withhold. Leave 
the black man without suffrage, "until he can raise 
himself to the elevation of the white race, as I think he 
may, and then, if possible, change your organic law." 

Johnson favored Andrew Johnson's^ presidential plan 
of reconstruction, but was not closely connected with the 
President, nor was a blind follower of him. He was the 
only representative of the minority in the Senate in 
the Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction and, as 
the leader of that minority in the Senate, had to defend 
several of the President's vetoes. The power of removal 
by the President was vigorously upheld by Johnson and 
he especially emphasized the folly of requiring the Presi- 
dent to keep in ofifice, as heads of departments, men 
who no longer had his confidence. 

On December 12, Johnson was appointed one of the 
six members of the joint committee on reconstruction 
on the part of the Senate. During the first week of tlie 
Session, Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts introduced a bill 
for the protection of freedmen'* and Johnson replied to 
him, asking that the bill be referred to a committee. 
The bill proposed to repeal laws by which any difference 
or inequality was created between races. Does this 
affect police laws? If the Southern States are in the 

'On April 24, 1865, Reverdy Johnson wrote Andrew Johnson: "It will be 
my pleasure, as I think it will be my duty, to afford your administration, as I 
anticipate it will be, all the support in my power (Century Magazine, January, 
1913, Vol. 85, p. 423). 

* In a debate on pension laws on April 13 and May 18, he referred to the 
difficulty of ascertaining who was a negro's wife. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 121 

Union, they may pass such laws. Is there a more press- 
ing need to prevent outrages on blacks in the South than 
in the loyal States? Crimes are committed even in 
Massachusetts. He was glad that the blacks were free 
and took the occasion to express his "very decided opin- 
ion," which he had always held, that the Southern States 
are in the Union "and that they never could have been 
placed out of the Union, without the consent of their sis- 
ter States. The insurrection terminated, the authority 
of the government was thereby reinstated; eo instanti 
they were invested with all the rights belonging to them 
individually, I mean as States." The "sole authority" 
for the Congressional acts of the war period was the 
authority to "suppress insurrection." He praised An- 
drew Johnson's message, which took the same view. 
Having conversed with many of the rebel leaders, he 
found "they are now as anxious to return, as in their in- 
sanity they were anxious to leave us." 

For the care of the freedmen, the Freedmen's Bureau 
had been established on March 3, 1865, and, as it was found 
that the original act did not go far enough, Trumbull 
introduced, from the judiciary committee, a supplemen- 
tary act to enlarge the powers of the Bureau. Johnson at 
once suggested delay and, on January 23, expressed 
himself as anxious to provide for the freedmen, but as 
doubtful of the power of Congress, especially as to the 
proposal to authorize the Bureau to go into the States 
and buy lands for the freedmen. The United States can 
buy lands for the arsenals, etc., but not for this purpose. 
Slavery having been abolished, the negroes stand on the 
same footing as the whites and, if there be authority to 
provide for the black, it is because he is a citizen, and so 
we may clothe and educate all citizens, though the project 
of a national university had been set aside because of 



122 REVERDY JOHNSON 

supposed lack of power. The nation cannot buy lands 
for philanthropic purposes. He had no partisan objection 
and thanked God that the rebellion had been suppressed 
as he had desired, but he must keep within the Con- 
stitution. Suppose that part of the Eastern Shore were 
bought up for this purpose. "Do you believe that 
'Maryland' would be satisfied to have that portion of 
our State, one of the fairest portions upon the face of 
the globe, capable of producing almost an unlimited 
amount, not only of the necessaries, but of the luxuries 
of life, put into the hands of the blacks exclusively?" 
Trouble would surely follow, though Johnson believed 
negroes were as safe in Maryland as in Massachusetts. 

Heaven knows, I have no prejudice against the race. Brought 
up among them, associating with them in boyhood and since, 
giving to them and receiving from them acts of kindness, I 
have no possible prejudice against them, but still I know that 
nature has made them so distinct from our race that, with the 
mass of mankind, there will be and perhaps must be more or 
less of prejudice, more or less of unwillingness on the part of 

the whites to be associated with the blacks I 

believe that they are capable of as much a high civilization as 
the white race. I have seen as much native talent exhibited 
in the black race as I have seen exhibited in the white race 
and I believe .... they will ere long become valuable 
citizens of the country. 

He felt that "slave labor cannot .... com- 
pete with free labor." Creswell, Johnson's radical col- 
league, spoke of outrages on the Eastern Shore for the 
purpose of driving refugees and freedmen from Maryland, 
alleging that juries were summoned by rebel sheriffs 
and were composed mostly of the very worst rebels. 
Johnson replied, in tone of apology, claiming that the 
outrages are exceptions and saying that he "once took 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 23 

an active part in a movement to prevent the exiling of 
free blacks from Maryland" and so had a right to speak. 
It was largely through Creswell's insistence that the 
bill originally drafted for the States in rebellion was 
amended to extend to the whole Union ;^ but Johnson, 
insisting that there was no more need of applying the 
law in Maryland than in Massachusetts, read from 
Governor Swann's speech, refusing to endorse Creswell, 
and from letters written by members of the Maryland 
Senate, stating that a man was killed in a drunken broil 
in Worcester County who, Creswell said, had been ruth- 
lessly murdered by a rebel soldier. 

The cognate civil rights bill, also introduced by 
Trumbull, was opposed by Johnson, as beyond the power 
of Congress, although he patriotically tried to amend it 
to make it as free from objections as possible. The 
bill proposed to define citizenship. Johnson went out 
of his way to say that, since the Dred Scott decision, a 
person of African descent was not a citizen ; for, on that 
point, the opinion dealt with an essential matter, even 
though what was said of the Missouri Compromise might 
be obiter. If it were not for the ruling of the Supreme 
Court, he should hold that the negroes were citizens, even 
when slavery existed. Johnson was anxious to get a good 
constitutional definition of citizenship and also to pro- 
tect the colored race in all proper rights, but this bill 
proposed to sweep away the police power. An act made 
obnoxious to the whole community, like the fugitive 
slave law, is of no practical importance, because it is a 
dead letter. Some States forbade intermarriage of 
negroes and whites and this law would destroy all State 
power in the matter. What will be the standing of In- 
dians, who are wards of the United States? Lane of 

• February 8. 



124 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Kansas said that Indians in his State had already taken 
allotments of lands. Johnson admitted that those who had 
separated themselves from their tribes ought to be citi- 
zens, but if their citizenship does not date from birth, 
it does not come from buying land, but will require 
Congressional legislation. Congress may admit to citi- 
zenship foreign subjects in annexed territories and has 
done so. It is "an anomaly that says there shall not be 
the rights of citizenship to any of the inhabitants of any 
State." Trumbull had used the word "inhabitant" 
in the bill,^ and Johnson pointed out that he had made it 
thus impossible for any State "to draw any distinction 
between citizens, who have been there from birth, or 
have been residents for a long time, and him who comes 
into the State now for the first time as a foreigner. He 
becomes at once an inhabitant. If he comes from Eng- 
land, or from any of the countries of the world, he be- 
comes that moment an inhabitant; and if this bill is to 
pass in the shape it stands, he can buy, he can sell, he 
can hold, he can inherit and be inherited from, and possess 
all the rights of a native bom citizen," without being 
naturalized. Johnson held that the phrase, "all men 
are created equal," covered negroes, for it was idle to 
deny that a negro is a person, in many respects the same 
as a white, though his intellectual capacity may be less.'' 
He moved to strike out, "without distinction of color," 
from the definition of citizenship in the bill, as he was anx- 
ious to do away with all questions involving rights which 
may be supposed to exist in one race and not in the other. 
The bill was passed and vetoed by President Johnson. 
In the debate which preceded the passage of the bill over 
the veto, Johnson delivered an important speech on 

^ Vide 2 Blaine 174. 
' On Februaty 1. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 25 

April 5. He defended warmly the veto power, which 
was given to guard the executive department, the States, 
and the citizens against encroachments by the legisla- 
tive department and against inexpedient and ill-con- 
sidered legislation. The President has a right to veto 
a bill on the grounds of expediency, as well as of consti- 
tutionality, as Madison said in the Federalist, although 
the Whigs had held otherwise in Jackson's times. An- 
drew Johnson in i860 had merely said that, when a bill 
was passed by a large majority, great caution was neces- 
sary in vetoing it. This was not a declaratory act, but 
one which changed the whole theory of government. 
The bill struck at all the reserved rights of the States. 
If Congress can so legislate as to blacks, the same may 
be done as to whites and the States are virtually abolished. 

It is the business of the general government to protect the 
citizens of the United States, where that protection cannot be 
obtained through the instrumentality of the States, but where 
the rights of the citizens of the United States are given by State 
laws over subjects intrusted exclusively to State legislation, 
it is the exclusive business of the State to protect them. 

This law, which invaded the jurisdiction of the States 
over their criminal code, is based on the "perilous de- 
lusion" that "the sooner everything is vested in the 
government of the United States, the better for the coun- 
try." Under this theory, the government will not last 
half a century, for anarchy and then despotic power would 
result. The only constitutional authority for Congress to 
confer citizenship is found in the naturalization clause, 
which was designed to remove disabilities arising from 
the fact of alienage. The bill wrongfully attempts to 
make all persons born in the United States citizens there- 
of and of the State wherein they reside, but the true view 



126 REVERDY JOHNSON 

is that every free person born in a State, who is a 
citizen of that State, is also a citizen of the United 
States, that is to say, birth plus State citizenship 
equals federal citizenship. The States exclusively pos- 
sess the power to say what persons shall be citizens. 
"A country as extensive as that of the United States 
cannot exist, except by means of divided sover- 
eignties." "Removal of the disabilities under the nat- 
uralization laws did not create the party a citizen of 
any one State. Congress can only accomplish its pur- 
pose by constitutional amendment. The bill provided 
that any judge who shall hold this law unconstitutional 
and a State law to be in force, in spite of this law, shall 
be punished and thus "usurps a power, inconsistent 
with the independence and integrity of the State judi- 
ciary." The President is correct in saying that it is 
not right to change the whole domestic economy of 
eleven States, as this bill does, in the absence of their 
representatives. It is not their fault that they are not 
here. They have organized and await Congressional leg- 
islation. The executive and the judiciary depart- 
ments recognize these States. "We alone stand in the 
way of a complete restoration." Irrespective of party 
considerations, what can harm us from their presence. 
The rights of black men are as safe in the South as in the 
North. Many disloyal men can be found in Illinois, 
if disloyalty is proven by want of confidence in Congress. 
Indeed Lincoln himself advocated secession in 1848. 
Andrew Johnson's career, as held by Trumbull, "a 
gentleman who stands at the head of the bar in America 
at this time, "has been thoroughly loyal and not inconsist- 
ent. 

On January 11, Johnson replied to Senator T. O. 
Howe of Wisconsin upon the subject of the Provisional 



REVERDY JOHNSON 12/ 

Governments of the Southern States.^ S. S. Cox' was 
much Impressed by this speech of the "sturdy and fervid 
Marylander," "with venerable EngHsh form" and "ex- 
pressive mouth." The "cunning of fence and the cour- 
age of conviction of the Marylander were resistless" and 
"his elocution, albeit trained in the solemn hush and 
seclusiveness of the Supreme Court, was loud, orotund 
and defiant." Howe had maintained that the war had 
reduced the seceding States to the condition of terri- 
tories and Johnson reiterated, in his reply, his old posi- 
tion that the nation can not war upon a State, but can 
suppress insurrection. 

It was a police power, given to Congress as such, not a power, 
under which, by any possible mode in which it could be exer- 
cised, any conquest, in the proper sense of the term, was to 
be achieved, not a power by which there was to be extinguished 
any existing institution in any one of the States, and, above all, 
not a power to destroy a State or States. 

The Federalist and the unanimous opinion of the 
Supreme Court in the Prize Cases were cited in confir- 
mation of Johnson's view that the "power actually 
given was a power to preserve, not to destroy," to make 
the government perpetual. It seemed to him to follow 
that a continued use of the police power was "a simple 
absurdity," when an insurrection is suppressed and the 
condition which required resort to that power was at an 
end. If the ordinances of secession were void, they 
could not take States out of the Union. "If the citi- 
zens had not a right to be disloyal, their disloyalty could 
not put them out" and they always were in the Union. 

^On December 19, he spoke in favor of printing Carl Schurz's report on 
conditions in the South. 

' Three decades of Federal Legislation 354. 



128 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Lincoln's proclamations in 1861 spoke of "the insurrec- 
tion." The United States now collect customs in the 
Southern ports under laws passed antecedent to the re- 
bellion. The Sea Islands had been sold to pay for South 
Carolina's direct tax. District attorneys and marshals 
had been appointed in the South, yet, by the Supreme 
Court's decision,^" the judicial system would not extend 
to it, if the States had become territories. The Supreme 
Court, even during the war, allotted judges to the rebel 
States. The Federal authority conquered, "in the name 
of the Constitution and laws of the United States," 
and declared 

to the insurgents this is your constitution and your laws and 
you are bound by them, as you were before you attempted to 
resist their authority We said that, notwith- 
standing their acts of secession and hostility, they were still 
States and their citizens were bound to obey the Constitution 
and laws of the United States. They denied this and we won, 
but have gained what may scarcely be called a victory, if we 
have put down an insurrection and have lost States in so doing. 

If the secession ordinances had any validity, the "war 
upon our part has been a great crime." If the "Consti- 
tution confers no right of separation," the ordinances 
were void and separation can not be "effected by the 
conduct of the individual citizens." Every man in the in- 
surrection was a traitor, whether he can now be presented 
for treason or not, and he is still a traitor, if he attempted 
to resist by arms one hour before hostilities terminated, 
since "he was then and is still a citizen of the United 
States." The result did not depend on the number of 
citizens in insurrection. "The offence of these citizens 
was a refusal to participate in the councils of the nation. 

'" Canter v. Am. Ins. Co. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 29 

The proposition is that that refusal has put them in a con- 
dition, in which they "have no right to participate in 
such councils and cannot participate, unless we, here- 
after, at any time when, in our judgment, we may 
think proper, give them the right." Yet at the beginning 
of the war, the statutes authorized the President to 
collect revenue on shipboard off the ports of the seceded 
States and to declare a state of insurrection there, where- 
upon commercial intercourse should cease, "so long 
as such condition of hostility continue." Castine and 
part of Maine were seized by the British during the war 
of 1812, but, "the moment the place was abandoned, the 
authority of the United States became reinstated propria 
vigor e^^ . . . . It revived just as animal life revives 
in certain cases, after temporary suspension." This 
remarkable speech closed with the expression of hope for 
harmony and prosperity. ^^ 

In January, Mr. Blaine proposed in the House a reso- 
lution which developed into the provision of the Four- 
teenth Amendment in reference to citizenship and the ap- 
portionment of representation. The amendment passed 
the House in the latter part of the month and in the 
debate upon it in the Senate on February 9, Johnson 
spoke at length in opposition to granting negroes suffrage. 
Under the old mode of ascertaining representation in 
Congress, the country had "prospered wonderfully," 
except only during "the four years through which we 
have so sadly but triumphantly passed." There are no 
longer slaves and "we all stand upon the same platform. 
As we came from Nature's God, we stand together upon 



" U. S. V. Rice 4 Wheaton. 

^ On January 26, he asked Howe whether a Senator, once admitted to the 
Senate, can be expelled on the ground that his State is not a member of the 
Union. 



130 REVERDY JOHNSON 

an equality, as far as related to human rights. The 
proposed disqualification is a safe one for New England, 
which had few blacks; but if Maryland makes a different 
qualification for her 171,000 blacks, all of them are de- 
ducted. Are you afraid of the power of the South? We 
had believed that Maryland possessed a republican 
government. The States will not admit the right of 
Federal government to regulate suffrage within their own 
limits." Sumner said that the civil rights bill had been 
passed, can not the same be done as to political rights? 
Johnson replied that he considered that the earlier bill 
was unconstitutional. "I had hoped that the time had 
passed when we were to esteem ourselves a different 
people. Our fathers esteemed us as one." Northern 
States have just voted against negro suffrage, yet the 
effect on them is nothing, compared to what it would be 
in Maryland and the South. The negro should be left 
without suffrage to educate himself, "until he can raise 
himself to the elevation of the white race, as I think he 
may, and then, if possible, change your organic law." 
Racial distinctions come from God. By the proposed 
amendments, Maryland's tax is increased, as the blacks 
are free, and yet representation is reduced. Kirkwood, 
who had been born in Maryland, asked why negroes 
should be counted, if they could not vote, and Johnson 
replied that he followed Madison, in saying that the 
right of suffrage and of representation were distinct. 
Negroes should be counted, for the same reason as women 
and children who are protected by the State. The edu- 
cational qualification for suffrage in Massachusetts 
proves that there is no inalienable right to vote, but that 
the question is one of governmental discretion. We 
want amity now, as in 1774, when every Southern 
State rushed to the rescue of Massachusetts. The South 



REVERDY JOHNSON I3I 

was not wholly to blame for the war, "Although the 
treason was culminated into actual perpetration by the 
South, it never could have occurred, but for the misjudged 
conduct of the North." Johnson labored to "defeat 
the parricidal effort to destroy the government," but now 
he longed for peace. Lincoln had once used words, as if 
he believed in the right to secede, and so had Jefferson 
in the Kentucky resolves, "a terrible document, a mis- 
chievous document." States once admitted are in the 
Union forever, as far as Congress is concerned. The 
Southern States have reorganized themselves and their 
representatives should be received. The Supreme Court 
in Luther vs. Borden, decided that the President had the 
right to determine when a State had a republican form 
of government. 

Johnson spoke again on the status of the Southern 
States upon March i. Having thought over the matter 
carefully, he felt more strongly than ever that he was 
right. The war is over and the "paramount obligation 
due" to the United States is recognized everywhere by the 
Southerners. They do not wish to resist and the govern- 
ment should give them the same privileges as residents 
in loyal States. Sumner discussed the character of the 
United States, as if we lived under one government, 
"paramount everywhere without limitation." Johnson 
recited the events leading up to the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, "which for the execution of its own powers looks 
to no State interference, to no State assistance, but to the 
direct responsibility of each individual citizen to the 
government within the limit of the powers conferred upon 
the government." The government is "partly national 
and partly federal." The States are absolutely necessary 
for the existence of the government. "He who seeks 
to blot out of existence a State, strikes a blow at the 



132 REVERDY JOHNSON 

very life of the government;" for the "continuing whole- 
some existence of the government depends upon the 
continuing existence of the States. The general govern- 
ment is infinitely more dependent upon the States than 
the States are upon the general government." The 
Constitution never contemplated that the government 
should "possess, under any state of circumstances, the 
power to put an end to a State." Sumner's suicide 
theory, now approved by a majority of the Senate, was 
not received in 1862. ''li, flagrante hello, the Senate 
considered them as States, in the name of reason, why are 
they not to consider them as States, now that the war 
is ended." If they are States still, their relation is the 
same as before secession and they are entitled to repre- 
sentation in the Senate, if they can present persons who 
have the individual requirements to take seats there. 
There would be no danger to the public weal to permit 
this and party danger is not to be recognized. Anyone 
should be admitted, who can take the oath. In such be- 
lief, Johnson had presented a number of credentials for 
Southern Senators, who are now as loyal as Sumner him- 
self.i» 

The government of the United States is not a government 
over the State at all. The government of the United States 
and the government of the State are equally, as far as the 
people of that State are concerned, the government of the 
people of that State. They owe allegiance to a much greater 
extent to the government of the State. 

The judicial system of the nation and the Senate depend 
on the States. The Supreme Court is now receiving rec- 

"He claimed that Wade and Chase had supported secession resolves in 
1859, but promptly apologized, when Wade denied this as to himself and 
Sherman as to Chase, vide March 2. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 33 

ords from decisions of courts in rebel States and hearing 
cases from these States. A government can not conquer 
itself. During the war, Wade himself had said: "Once 
a State of this Union always a State." As a member of 
the Judiciary Committee during the war, Johnson had 
agreed that it would be improper (not illegal) to admit 
the representatives from the rebel States without an 
act of Congress. "Now the war has been over for a year 
and you are trying to find out whether Southerners are 
kind to freedmen." Johnson had ever thought slavery 
was wrong, but did not quarrel with the other view. He 
believed that the results of emancipation "will be ex- 
ceedingly advantageous," but thought that those van- 
quished in the greatest rebellion the world had ever 
witnessed should be taken back and granted peace, as 
Vattel advised should be done, when a rebellion was 
crushed. 

It meant much to the country to have in the Senate, so 
fair-minded a man as Johnson, who could say^^ that the 
Committee of Fifteen was perfectly impartial and gave 
subpoenas when asked. " I differed from the committee, 
but never saw the slightest reason to suspect that they de- 
signed anything that was not perfectly just and fair."i^ 

An echo of a controversy which has not yet died down 
was heard on May i, when Johnson read a letter from 
Wade Hampton, who had written him as South Carolina 
had no Senator, denying Sherman's charge that Hamp- 
ton burnt Columbia, accusing Sherman's soldiers of 
burning the town, and asking for an investigation of the 
matter. Johnson vouched for Hampton's veracity, 
having known him long before the war and asked that 

" On March 15. 

^*His eulogy on Solomon Foot of Vermont on April 12 is another proof of 
his friendly relations with northern Republicans. 



134 REVERDY JOHNSON 

the letter be referred to the Committee on Military 
Affairs. Fessenden objected to the reading of private 
letters and John Sherman defended his brother, where- 
upon Johnson rejoined that he considered the letter as 
a memorial and had shown it to John Sherman, who 
thought it might well be presented with Sherman s reply. 
He then withdrew his motion, remarking that he was far 
from justifying Hampton, who may have thought his 
conduct right, though "he sinned very materially against 
his duty," and that "nobody can think higher of the 
gallant general," Sherman, "to whom we are indebted so 
much for the termination of the rebellion, than I do." 
He favored a constitutional definition of citizenship 
which^® was recognized, but not defined, by the original 
instrument. Without such definition he was not pre- 
pared to say that everyone born within the United 
States is a citizen. The Indian tribes are subject to our 
jurisdiction, but we recognize some sort of national exist- 
ence of theirs, though under no constitutional obligation 
to do so. The grant of citizenship to them should be 
avoided and the term, "Indians not taxed," which had 
a fixed meaning, should be introduced in the definition as 
an exception. The proposed Fourteenth Amendment 
excluded too many from office. 

All history shows, as I think, that, on the conclusion of a 
civil war, the more mild, consistently with the safety of the 
country, the measures which are adopted, the better for the 
restoration of entire peace and harmony. 

The South will refuse to accept the • amendment, 
which will disfranchise nine-tenths of the whites. Har- 
mony is yet far off and the South is kept in thralldom, 
wherefrom it is less prosperous and the whole country 

^^ On May 30. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 135 

suflFers. If the amendment were divided the difficulty 
would be less. This war was not like many civil wars, 
for it grew "out of a difference of constitutional opinion," 
in which opinion the South was honest, although its 
view was " wrong, dangerous, unconstitutional, and in- 
consistent with the continuance of the Union." Treason 
had been committed, but the men who formerly held 
public offices are no more traitors than those who did 
not. He cited" the case of ex parte Garland, which had 
not yet been decided, but which he had argued before 
the Supreme Court, and urged that the operation of 
the President's pardon was to clear the person pardoned 
from the obligation to take the iron clad oath. He was 
forced by Howe to admit that the power to pardon from 
the operation of a statute was greater than from the oper- 
ation of a constitutional amendment. All his attempts 
failed to have the exclusion of the State officials removed 
from the resolution, or the length of time diminished 
during which the oath of allegiance had previously been 
taken. He even struggled to prevent^ ^ the diminution 
of votes from applying to municipal elections. ^^ Up till 
the passage of the amendment, everyone thought the 
basis of representation depended on the entire number 
of the people represented; but "the effect of the excep- 
tion is to deny to the black man the right of representa- 
tion, unless the State shall secure him the right to the 
franchise." The right of the State to control the fran- 
chise is thus admitted. In Maryland, the exclusion of 
the blacks, who are a fourth of the population and who 

'' On May 31, vide 2 Blaine Twenty Years 209. 

'* On June 6 

*' 2 Blaine 212 calls attention to the fact that the disqualification clause 
was made stronger in the Senate than in the House and Johnson was the only 
man who voted against the substitute, while even he afterward said that he 
did so under a misapprehension 



136 REVERDY JOHNSON 

are the only class of people excluded from the suffrage 
will cause the South to lose at least one Congressman. ^'^ 
The result will be ruinous to the South. In Maryland 
there Is a contest for negro suffrage and this amendment 
is a provision to force such suffrage on the State. The 
free States have a majority of seventy- two now in the 
House of Representatives, which Is surely enough to 
protect their Interests. Johnson appealed to the Sen- 
ators not to interfere with the "rights secured to the 
Southern States now by the Constitution, which our 
fathers gave us, upon the pretext, utterly without founda- 
tion, that the rights of your respective States will be sub- 
ject to the slightest peril, by continuing the representation 
as it stands." In 1787, the fathers determined that a 
nation was to be created by means of their wisdom and a 
nation they did create, awful in war, happy and conser- 
vative in peace. It is an anti-republican doctrine that 
people within the limits of a State are not represented. 
Representation and franchise are different. The whole 
effect of the proposal Is to strike a blow at States now in 
the Union, unless they will agree to a policy at war with 
the past and exclude some of the best and wisest of their 
men. All the States except Texas have organized and 
the executive and judiciary departments recognize them. 
Reference of the amendment to them for ratification 
recognizes them also. Let us wait until these States are 
represented in Congress and advise with us as to consti- 
tutional amendments. In 1865, Judge Nelson said South 
Carolina was entitled to the full enjoyment of her con- 
stitutional rights and privileges.^i We should terminate 
present conditions, readmit the Southerners to Congress, 
and make the Union prosperous and happy. His words 

20 On June 8. 

^^ Egan case. He was tried by a military commission. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 137 

fell on deaf ears and he voted with the minority against 
the amendment. 22 

His anxiety to have the States restored was shown by 
his voting to recognize Tennessee, though he had no 
official knowledge of the truth of the statement made in 
the preamble of the resolve that that State had, in good 
faith, adopted the Fourteenth Amendment. ^^ He was 
also urgent that Senator Patterson from that State be 
admitted^* to take an oath, subject to the possibility of 
punishment for perjury. 

He still insisted^s that loyal slaveholders be paid with 
interest for slaves who enlisted in the Union army and 
who were properly declared free because of that fact. 

If there are any men in the United States who should be 
treated with generosity, to say nothing of justice, it is the men 
who remained loyal to the Union and true to their duty and 
the flag of the Union in Maryland, who were slaveholders and 
who were wiUing to let the institution go, rather than see the 
government of the Union put at hazard. 

When the Fourteentli Amendment shall have been 
adopted, no further payment can be made on this account, 
consequently this payment should be made quickly.^^ 

-- On July 7, he made a strenuous struggle to be permitted to present a 
report made by the minority of three in the Committee of Fifteen on Recon- 
struction. Johnson had been in Pennsylvania in the end of June and asked 
Hendricks to present it, but he had been refused permission so to do; because 
he was not a member of the committee, because it was not customary to re- 
ceive such reports, and because it was not presented with the majority report. 
Johnson showed that such minority reports had been made in at least three 
previous years and won his fight to lay before the people views on the Consti- 
tutional Amendment different from those of the majority. 

-' On July 21. 

2* On July 26. 

-^On July 23. Creswell supported him. 

-* He was more successful in urging, on July 24, as an act of humanity and 
justice to the exceedingly improverished South, the suspension of the direct 
tax. in accordance with the recommendation of the Committee of Fifteen. 



138 REVERDY JOHNSON 

During all this struggle, his relations to his Republican 
associates continued cordial. They recognized in him 
a Union man, who could say, in his eulogy" on Collamer, 
that he died just after the fratricidal blow, aimed "at 
the nation's life by wicked ambition, proving for a time 
able to mislead the honest masses of the South, was 
so utterly defeated and crushed that its renewal is im- 
possible." 

During the session he frequently spoke on the affairs 
of the District of Columbia. He held that a corporation, 2' 
chartered there by Congress, would have no power to 
transact business outside of the District; but, if no law 
of a State prevented, the corporation might go into a 
State and buy land there. He discussed the proposed 
alterations in the jurisdiction^^ of the courts of the Dis- 
trict, the marriage laws, ^^ the privilege of railroads there, '^ 
and the enlargement of the capitol grounds. '^ He felt 
there was no danger of annulling the provision of the 
Maryland Bill of Rights^^ and permitting people to 
give to churches what they think proper, free from re- 
striction, because we have no state religion and the many 
sects are watchful of each other. Johnson had been a 
member of the Senate in 1846 and defended the recession 
of Alexandria to Virginia, which he thought clearly 
within the Federal power. The rest of the District might 
also be receded and the site of the capital changed. We 
had a government before we had a capital and the ab- 
sence of it will not destroy the government. If Congress 

'^ On December 14. 
^' On March 7 and 21. 

29 On April 2. 

30 On April 3. 
'' On May 2 1 . 
32 On July 10. 
3' On July 20. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 39 

remove the capital, they are not compelled to remain rulers 
of the land, but may surrender it, as forts or dockyards 
are surrendered to the States, when the exigency demand- 
ing their use terminated.^'* 

If the act of secession was unconstitutional, it is void; 
if constitutional, Congress can not impair it. It is folly 
to say, as Howard did, that Alexandria was receded at 
the beginning of the rebellion. The fact that Alexandria 
voted in favor of returning to Virginia does not make the 
law void.^^ If Alexandria was not retroceded, how is 
West Virginia a State. To take back the territory would 
increase Federal expenses. The District needs no in- 
crease in territory, while some paramount consideration 
should be urged to justify the legislating for and taxing 
people without representation, contrary to the very 
spirit of our government. 

Questions of interstate and foreign commerce brought 
Johnson often on the floor.^^ "Under the authority to 
regulate commerce," he held^^ that 

Congress has no power to construct a bridge, unless it owns 
the land on either side, but that the authority to construct is 
vested in the States alone, where the States have jurisdiction 
on both sides of the river over which the bridge is to be thrown. 
Congress, however, have the authority, under the commercial 
power, to prescribe what draws are necessary, in order to avoid 
any impediment to navigation, or whether bridges are to be 
built without draws and with an elevation which will remove 
all danger of impediment to the river. 



** July lo and ii. 

'^ In this speech, Johnson referred to his great contemporary, Henry Winter 
Davis, as "eminent as a lawyer, as well as a politician, and, in my judgment, 
more often wrong in the latter capacity than he was in the first." 

3'"' On January 15, he spoke on the Wheeling Bridge case. 

" On July 18. 



140 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Neither the commercial nor the war power gives 
Congress the right to keep out the Asiatic cholera." 
He believed that the commercial power was intended 
to be exclusive and, if Congress failed to regulate com- 
merce entirely, it would have declared that it had 
placed matters in the condition in which they should 
remain. The commercial power does not conflict with 
the police power of the States to preserve the health or 
morals of their citizens and with their exclusive power to 
establish quarantines. If Congress can legislate as to the 
health, it can do so after a disease comes into the coun- 
try, and if it has authority to prevent the spread of 
disease, it could prevent it through restrictions on inter- 
state commerce also. 

He objected to the bill for interstate intercourse," 

A Constitution is worth nothing practically, if it is not to 
be considered as authoritatively decided after years of deliber- 
ation and frequent decisions by every department of the 
government. 

It has been decided that commerce within the State 
is purely under the State's control. Individual judgment 
must not be used. 

When we swear to support the Constitution of the United 
States, we are bound to construe it, in order to support it, as 
the framers of the Constitution are known to have construed 
it and the people by whom it was adopted are known to have 
construed it and to have adopted it because of that construction. 

The States may prescribe the terms of railroad chart- 
ers, and provide for their forfeiture, while Congress may 
not grant such railroads powers not in their charters, 
which franchises will be unforfeitable by the State. He 

'^On May 11 and 15. 
" On April 26. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I4I 

defended*" the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for its con- 
duct during the war, when Lincoln and Stanton held 
it to be invaluable to the Union. It was planning a 
branch to Port of Rocks and was anxious to complete 
the Connellsville Railroad to Pittsburg. In the Circuit 
Court at Wilkesbarre in the preceding summer, Johnson 
had won a decision that the Pennsylvanian repeal of that 
charter was unconstitutional.*^ He proposed that the 
rates be not greater than the State allows.** Fessenden 
remarked that "a very selfish and odious condition" 
resulted in Maryland and New Jersey from monopoly 
given railroads. Johnson at once defended his State and 
the Baltimore and Ohio charter, which had been opposed 
by the Baltimore and Washington turnpike men. In- 
stead of a bonus for the charter, a fifth of the fares on 
the Washington branch went to the State. Fessenden 
said that Maryland levied contributions on the citizens 
of other States. Johnson said that Maryland was not 
ashamed. Fessenden came from an inhospitable part 
of the country, surpassed by Maryland in climate and 
in such natural products as oysters, terrapins, crabs, 
and ducks. 

If Maryland had been, as Maine has been from the first, a 
free State, she would have had a population now as numerous 
and as enterprising as is the population of the State of Maine. 

As it is, Maryland will soon outnumber her.** 

John P. Stockton, the Democratic candidate from 
New Jersey for the Senatorship, had been returned as 

'"On May 3, Creswell spoke in defense of Maryland. 

*^ He explained why the Baltimore and Ohio and the Northern Central 
Railroads would not sell through tickets and checks from Washington to 
Harrisburg. 

** On May 29. 

*• In spite of his irenical disposition, Johnson had frequently such arga- 
■lents, e.g., with Trumbull on February 23 and March 26. 



142 REVERDY JOHNSON 

elected by a plurality vote of the legislature, in accord- 
ance with a resolution passed by it, after it appeared 
that no candidate could command the votes of a major- 
ity of the members. His right to a seat was disputed 
partly on constitutional and partly on partisan grounds. 
Johnson took part in the debate and maintained^* that the 
Constitution did not settle what constitutes a legislature. 
In 1787, Pennsylvania's legislature consisted of one House 
only. The joint convention of the legislature had the 
right to elect, when a majority of the whole number was 
present, although not one member of one of the Houses 
were present. The convention had also the right to 
provide that a plurality should elect a Senator. Stock- 
ton voted on his right to a seat and Senator Morrill broke 
a pair in order to vote against Stockton. The vote stood 
22 to 21 in Stockton's favor. Stockton was ill advised in 
voting, for, in the case of a tie, he would have remained 
in the Senate, with a prima facie title. When the Senate 
met again, Sumner attacked Stockton, moved to cor- 
rect the Journal, by striking out Stockton's vote, and 
said that Morrill had broken his pair, after obtaining 
the approval of Sumner, who in turn had consulted with 
Johnson. Johnson defended Stockton's act, as the case 
was one of the State of New Jersey, and Stockton's 
only interest was the insignificant one of his pay as Sena- 
tor.''^ Though the Journal was not corrected, parlia- 
mentary steps were taken, which led to the rejection 
of Stockton from his seat, by a vote of 22 to 21, in the 
absence, through illness, of Stockton's colleague from 
New Jersey, who would have voted for him. Johnson 

^^On March 22. 

*^0n March 26. White's Lyman Trumbull at page 264 speaks of this 
speech as "a pathetic appeal to the fraternal feeling and gentlemanly instincts 
of Senators." 



REVERDY JOHNSON I43 

properly reprobated the refusal of the majority to post- 
pone the matter and claimed that "I speak in no party 
sense. Those, who know the political principles which 
I have entertained, from the time I came into public 
life up to the present time, are not warranted in calling 
me a Democrat. I never was."'*'' The statement is 
paradoxical but true, for Johnson was, to the end of his 
life, a border State Union man and an old line Whig, 
though, for want of another party to advocate his 
principles, he found, at times, a more congenial refuge 
with the Democrats than with the Republicans. 

He favored relieving Supreme Court Judges of Circuit 
Court work, but wished to continue appeals in many 
cases to the higher tribunal, feeling that the law would 
thus be more uniform and more respected by the State 
courts. He opposed allowing a judge who sat on a case 
below to sit in banc on an appeal, but^^ saw no objection 
to clerks being related to the judges. 

Johnson defended a bill for the protection of federal of- 
ficers. ^^ In every well regulated government, he thought, 
the judicial department should be coextensive with the 
legislative. If the rightful authority of the government 
could not have been maintained by the courts, our insti- 
tutions would have failed and the general government 
would have been comparatively futile. The provision 
of the judiciary act of 1789 that cases involving Federal 
questions might be carried, by writ of error, from State 
courts to the Supreme Court was very important. 
Whenever the validity of Federal law is questioned, 
the United States should have jurisdiction. If the State 
court tries to execute its judgment in spite of such re- 

^^On March 27. 
^' On April 2 and 4. 
'^ On April 20. 



144 REVERDY JOHNSON 

moval, its officers should be punished, for it would not 
be a case of erroneous judgment, but of a violation of a 
Federal statute, which Congress has authority to pass. 
Many abuses of authority have been committed by 
those to whom the management of the suppression of 
the rebellion has been intrusted. "I believe the sup- 
pression would have been just as effectual, obeying 
the constitutional limits. I believed, in the beginning, 
that it was all important that the writ of habeus corpus 
should be suspended," and supported Lincoln against 
Taney in that position. " If I were wrong, every officer 
who refused to obey the proclamation would be respon- 
sible." Johnson thought military commissions merely 
covered the army, the executive thought differently and 
many were punished under them. Johnson tried in 
vain to persuade the Commission, who tried Lincoln's 
assassins, that they had no power, but, in ex parte Mil- 
ligan, he won from the Supreme Court a decision that 
there was no authority for a court martial, or a military 
commission, to try a civilian, unless he happened to be 
a spy and so brought within the scope of military law. 
Johnson upheld the power of the President to reappoint 
to an office a man whose appointment had been rejected 
by the Senate. The breach between Andrew Johnson 
and Congress was widening daily, and the conservatism 
which was characteristic of Reverdy Johnson, as a true 
Marylander, led him to support the President. The 
discussion over the post office appropriation bill led 
Johnson to express his views on April 23. The power to 
appoint to office can not be taken from the President 
and, as it is his duty to keep the offices filled, recCvSs 
appointments continue until the end of the next ses- 
sion of Congress, in spite of rejection of the men ap- 
pointed. The appointee has a right to the salary and. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I45 

if Congress can not prevent an appointment, they should 
not prevent the pay. If a man die during the session 
and the fact is not known, the President does not have to 
wait the Senate's convening to fill the vacancy. The 
President has also the power*^ to remove, a power not 
expressly put in the Constitution, but inferred. The 
Senate abandoned any attempt to attack Jackson for 
his removals. Congress may refuse to pay salaries, 
but has no moral right to do so. A President may be 
starved out as well as impeached, but such a precedent 
may return to plague the inventor. Arguing with Trum- 
bull, Johnson continued that to grant the President 
power to remove and deny him that to appoint is to 
hinder the government. "It is not my good fortune 
to see President Johnson, except very seldom and 
that upon matters of business." He is a "man of firm- 
ness." Johnson, not being under the influence of party 
spirit, emphasized the danger of trouble between Con- 
gress and the President and of divided counsels, 
when there was danger of war with Austria and France 
over Mexico. We are not legislating for the hour and 
the President can not properly man the offices, if he has 
to find persons disposed to take place, on the contin- 
gency that the Senate will approve their nominations. 
He can see^" to the faithful execution of the laws only 
through subordinates, and, although he may abuse 
the power of removal, all powers, even those of Con- 
gress, involve such possibilities of abuse. The proposal 
"strikes a vital blow at the executive department and is 
inconsistent with all the objects which it was the pur- 
pose of the Convention to have accomplished through 
the instrumentality of that department." "Nobody 

** On April 30. 
"On May i. 



146 REVERDY JOHNSON 

has ever impeached the personal integrity of any Presi- 
dent," though members of Congress have been expelled 
for improper conduct. ^^ Fillmore removed a territorial 
judge, who applied for a mandamus, but meantime 
the Senate had approved a nomination in his place. 
Did that remove from office the original incumbent? 
In any case, the proposed provision is not fittingly 
placed in an appropriation bill and, if the bill should 
be vetoed because of the provision, it might be neces- 
sary to close the post offices. 

I will not discuss the dififerences between the President and 
Congress, but think those who differ from the President ought 
charitably to conclude that he, as they, believes he is right 
and that the differences are honest. Otherwise we will have 
a distracted country, in more peril than in the Civil War. 

''Andrew Johnson is carrying out Lincoln's policy. 
It never occurred to the people in the past that the Pres- 
ident could be compelled to retain, in his cabinet, of- 
ficers in whom he had ceased to confide, no matter upon 
what grounds his confidence was losl." If he must 
report reasons for the removal to Congress, it must 
mean that, if the reasons are not satisfactory, the officers 
must be reinstated and a cabinet of officers, in whom he 
has no confidence, is forced on the President, or there is 
laid before the Senate some ground upon which the House 
of Representatives may impeach the President. The 
wise prescience of these words was to be proven in the 
coming months. Johnson discussed, ^^ with great incisive- 
ness, the constitutional decisions on the right to remove 
officers and called to the attention of the Senate the fact 

^' In Marbury v. Madison the Supreme Court "committed a very grave 
fault .... by deciding a controversy in a case which was not before 
them." 

*^ On May 2 and 7. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I47 

that, as cabinet officers are not provided expressly by 
the Constitution, Congress might repeal the laws estab- 
lishing them and leave no such officers. The good sense 
and patriotism of the men of 1789 showed how important 
it is to give the President advisers. You must vest 
powers somewhere and chough the patronage of the gov- 
ernment should not be used for political purposes, 
precedent shows that removal may be made without 
assigning cause. 

When the consular and diplomatic bill was debated, 
Johnson opposed depriving of his salary, Mr. Harvey, 
the minister to Portugal, who wrote Seward a private 
letter reflecting on Congress. There was no complaint 
against Harvey's conduct of his office and it was unjust 
to force him to serve without pay, or to resign. Johnson 
was "not in the habit of writing private letters," but 
did not think they should count against a man.^^ 

He opposed the admission of Colorado on the ground^* 
of want of population. Inequality between States is 
bad and would not have been ignored in 1787, had not 
the small States been perfectly independent and un- 
willing to come in on other terms. Colorado contains 
only 35,000 people, part of whom are Mexicans. State- 
hood is not needed to protect the people there, since we 
protect the District of Columbia, which contains 100,000 
people. "My opinion is that the moment the State is 
admitted, it is wholly independent of any legislation 
that Congress may adopt, except such as falls within 
its delegated powers." 

There is a danger in admitting too many States. 
Not wealth, but citizens, make a State. It was uncertain, 
whether the people of Colorado really wished statehood, 

" On July 20. 
" On April 25. 



148 REVERDY JOHNSON 

which they rejected in 1864 and now requested by a 
returned majority of only 155 in 6000 votes. A State 
constitution should not be forced on the people. The 
bill passed and was vetoed by the President,*** and Rev- 
erdy Johnson defended his right to do so, though the 
act had no precedent. Congress did not repass the bill 
and Colorado waited for a decade, before she became a 
State. 

He felt the condition of the country imperatively 
demanded a bankruptcy law,^^ and opposed a direct 
cotton tax." He favored*^ permitting collectors of 
taxes to deposit funds in national banks, instead of 
compelling them to use the subtreasury, which would 
put on them the burden of converting their receipts into 
legal tender notes. So long as the national banks and 
the subtreasury are in existence, legislation must enable 
each to get on without unnecessarily embarrassing the 
public. He objected to a bill against smuggling, be- 
cause it failed to provide a jury trial and placed the bur- 
den of proving innocence on the defendant, as the pur- 
chaser would have to prove ignorance of the wrongful 
importation.^^ He opposed a reduction of mileage of 
members of Congress to twenty cents, ^^ as we "have got 
into the good practice of bringing our families" to Wash- 
ington. Calhoun had rightly said that one of the bonds 
of the Union is the mileage, and the amount proposed is 

" On May 21. 

**0n July 23. 

" On July 6. 

"On July 19. 

'* On May 14. On July 23, he advocated the act of 1864, which made 
passage money a lien on real estate and a personal obligation to be paid 
within twelve months by an immigrant, and provided that the Commissioner 
of Immigration see that means should be afforded him of being transported 
whither he might wish to go. 

" On July 24. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 49 

not enough to bring the Congressmen's families on it. 
He defended the graduates of the military academy 
from the charge of treason." The fault of those, who 
left the government and were guilty of treason, was 
palliated by the fact that they received their early edu- 
cation in a part of the United States, where constitu- 
tional secession was taught.*^ 

Johnson opposed the purchase of the library of his 
old friend Pettigru of Charleston, whose last letter, re- 
gretting South Carolina's secession, had been written 
to Johnson.**^ Old editions of law books are not of much 
value. Pettigru was not buying books in recent years, 
relying, as most lawyers do, on bar libraries. Johnson 
himself bought Wirt's library of four or five thousand 
volumes for $3000, when he had unfortunately lost his 
own through the mob's acts." 

His charitable disposition was shown by his proposal 
to appropriate $50,000 for the relief of sufferers from 
a fire in Portland, Maine. ^"^ He cited the precedents of 
appropriations for the sufferers from an explosion in 
the Washington arsenal, of $20,000 to Alexandria in 
18 1 2, of lands to the sufferers from the New Madrid 
earthquake, of $5000 to sufferers from a Venezuelan earth- 
quake in 18 1 2, and of the sending of a ship to Ireland in 
time of famine. Trumbull objected to the proposition 
and asked its reference to the Finance Committee. John- 
son replied that Trumbull had recommended the Freed- 
men's Bureau, which was a charity. Here "is a loss by 
fire, such as never occurred anywhere else," and individ- 

*'0n May 17. 

** A member of the Peace Convention, who was a secessionist, had just told 
Johnson: You were right and I was wrong. 
•* Published in the Intelligencer. 
•*0n May 14. 
•• On July 19. 



150 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ual aid is inadequate. Buckalew remarked that noth- 
ing had been given Chambersburg when the Confederates 
burned it, and Johnson repHed that it was "impossible 
to indemnify against the consequences of war," after 
which speech he had the pleasure of seeing the bill 
pass the Senate by a vote of twenty-tAVO to eighteen.^^ 

Near the close of the session, on July 28, he opposed 
permitting Fenians to hold their meetings in the build- 
ings of a soldiers' orphans home. The Fenians' " avowed 
purpose is to make war upon England," which country 
would have good right to complain, if such permission 
be granted. Whether England did right during the 
rebellion is not now the question. Our recent steps to 
enforce neutrality laws do us great honor. We want 
the approval of mankind and Great Britain already 
shows such admiration of us that the time is near ap- 
proaching, when she will wake up to her own default 
and pay us damages for it. Europe is in convulsion. 
We should abstain from doing anything to participate 
in the struggles. We have won in our own conflict and 
displayed our powers to an astonished world. Our duty 
now is to heal our own disorders. England, with all her 
faults, "is the only constitutional government now upon 
the face of the habitable globe, except our own, where 
personal liberty and personal rights are maintained." 

He was so busy with legal practice in those days, that 

^^ On miscellaneous topics we note that Johnson opposed, on December 13, 
a measure for improving the reports of the proceedings of Congress in the 
Associated Press, as he did not see how it would accomplish anything and 
considered that the newspapers did no harm in reporting speeches wrongly; 
spoke on April 20, on rescue of San Francisco passengers in 1853; prophesied, 
on May 24, that the official history of the rebellion would cost two or three 
million doUars; advocated, on May 17, raising the salary of clerks, particularly 
in the Treasury and State Departments; and suggested, on May 16, Round 
Bay on the Severn River as a freshwater basin for ironclads. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I5I 

he was known to leave the Senate, argue a case In the 
Supreme Court, and then return to his desk. In the 
interval between sessions, he was occupied in the work 
of the law in the Maryland and Pennsylvania courts. 
On August 14, 1866, a convention of conservative 
Unionists" was held in Philadelphia, in which gathering 
Johnson took part. An address to the President was 
there prepared and was presented to him by Johnson 
in a courtly speech^^ four days later. In the autumn, 
he took a prominent part in aiding the Democrats in 
State politics, joined other lawyers in an opinion that 
the registration law*^^ did not apply to elections of 
municipal corporations, and published with J. H. B. 
Latrobe^" an opinion, in opposition to that of Alexander 
Randall, that new registry lists could be used in Balti- 
more. On November 3, he delivered a speech at Towson 
"on the questions connected with the condition of the 
country, "^^ in which he took strong ground for speedy 
readmission of the States, now that the "insane attempt 
to dissolve the Union" had failed, and for the repeal of 
the iron clad oath in Maryland. Yet so conservative 
was he, that he discouraged the calling of a constitu- 
tional convention in the State during 1867, after the 
Democrats had gained control of the State government, 
lest the Convention cause too much disturbance. In 
the Towson speech, after attacking the abolitionists and 
disunionists, he blamed the South for secession, because 
of the great inferiority of their power and because the 

*' The so called arm-in-arm convention. DeWitt's Impeachment of Andrew 
Johnson, 11 1. 

** Gideon Welles (Diary II p. 582) wrote that Johnson read the address 
"with some earnestness and emphasis." 

«9 3 Scharf Md. 680. 

'0 In the Sun for October 2, 1866. 

'1 Printed in pamphlet form. Baltimore, 1866, pp. 2>2- 



152 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ground, on which the legality of their act was placed 
was "without reasonable warrant and was, in its very 
nature, fatal to an effectual union of States, few or 
many." He justified, by historical argument, the right 
of the nation to suppress insurrection. The United 
States has a "government vested with every necessary 
power to enforce its jurisdiction against individuals, and 
to preserve and not subvert its own existence." It ha» 
"no power to destroy itself." 

Its extended life depends upon the continuing existence of 
the States, as its own life is made up of the lives of the States 
and is totally, or partially, lost, as the latter shall cease to 
exist totally or partially. Unfounded as the doctrine 

of State secession was, that of State expulsion by the generaJ 
government, is. if possible, yet more unfounded. 

This latter doctrine was first announced by Sumner, 
on February ii, 1862, but, in July, 1861, Congress had 
voted that the war was not waged for any purpose of 
conquest, or subjugation, and thus had pledged the 
faith of the nation to a contrary policy. Under that 
resolution, it mattered not how many States seceded, 
and Senators and Representatives of such States, like 
Andrew Johnson, continued in Congress. Under the 
new doctrine, there might be changes of boundary, or 
consolidation of the seceding States, and all congres- 
sional restrictions are destroyed as to them, while the 
laws to be applied to them satisfy an alleged public 
justice and the "low vulgar passion of avarice." The 
army makes no such suggestion, knowing that the South 
can not be properly governed as a conquered province 
without hundreds of thousands of soldiers. To prove 
that the States continue as such, Johnson referred to 
the reapportionment act, to the admission of West 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 53 

Virginia, to the direct tax laws, to the appropriations 
for salaries of officers of the Federal courts, to the 
change of judicial circuits in the South, and to the re- 
quirement that the Southern States ratify the constitu- 
tional amendments. The Supreme Court entertains 
writs of error from the Southern States, which is con- 
clusive proof that the tribunal regards them as States. 
The presidential plan of reconstruction, "had it pre- 
vailed, when first announced, would long since have 
restored the Union and, thereby, have brought peace, 
prosperity and happiness to our now distracted land. 
The Congressional plan has unwisely — and, I think, un- 
constitutionally — delayed these happy results and prom- 
ises to delay them indefinitely." It is a most "inex- 
pedient and mischievous proposition, endangering the 
South's great material interests," and hence endangering 
the whole nation, which must be kept united to "lead 
the world on to freedom." Southern men are to be 
trusted. The power to readmit their States is not legis- 
lative. He even feared a renewal of strife and suspected 
that the party in power wished to keep out the Southern 
States for party purposes, until after the next presi- 
dential election. The "enlightened sentiment of the 
world" was with Johnson, who was only carrying out 
Lincoln's policy, and the threatened impeachment and 
suspension of the President, for doing what half of the 
people approve, is alarming. In Maryland, a large 
majority of the citizens are excluded from the franchise, 
and the "best feelings of the heart are made grounds of 
expulsion of voters from the polls." Even George Pea- 
body's utterances would exclude him from voting, if he 
resided in Maryland. "The blood of our patriotic 
ancestors cries out from the grave against" this state 
of affairs. Its continuance is inconsistent with the vital 



154 ' REVERDY JOHNSON 

Spirit of our free institutions. It is absolute political 
despotism. Owing to "the wise and patriotic course" of 
Governor Swann, "the wrongs are being diminished." 
Johnson believed the provision of the Constitution of 
Maryland as to oaths was invalid, being an ex post facto 
law, but the Court of Appeals decided in favor of its 
validity, and the hope is now of relief from the new 
legislature, or from an appeal to the Supreme Court. If 
it decides against us, the majority of the people have the 
right, "with or without legislative sanction," to elect dele- 
gates to a convention, whose work should be submitted 
to the people to form a new, or modify the existing. 
Constitution. Maryland is "happily located, geographi- 
cally, with a salubrious climate, a fertile soil, capable of 
almost every agricultural product, exhaustless supplies 
of coal and Iron, unsurpassed water power." She needs 
"only a free and contented people to make our State 
one of the most prosperous of the Union. But all her 
natural advantages will avail little, without freedom of 
opinion, equality of rights, and kindness of feeling." 

In the winter of 1866 and 1867, men saw Johnson 
taking a notable stand. On the one hand, he showed 
the Senate, by masterly argument, that the President's 
power to pardon was constitutional and could not be 
taken from him; he opposed "making a cipher of any 
department of government," and he Insisted that the 
clause In the Constitution, guaranteeing a republican 
form of government to each State, had no possible refer- 
ence to negro suffrage, but meant a government, "which 
corresponds with the governments in existence when 
the Constitution was adopted." On the other hand, 
without consulting his political friends, he introduced 
an amendment to the reconstruction act of 1867, pro- 
viding that when the Southern States should have 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 55 

adopted negro suffrage, they should be readmitted to 
the Union, inasmuch as nothing could be worse than 
the present condition. Some time should be set, at 
which the military dominion over these States should 
end and the country truly become one. When this 
amendment was adopted, Johnson voted for the bill 
and did so a second time, when Andrew Johnson vetoed 
it, as he believed that the States should be brought 
back, even with negro suffrage, and feared that if this 
bill failed, the temper of the North, steadily growing 
sterner, would demand even harder terms. In March, 
at the extra session, he voted for the supplementary 
reconstruction bill and supported it over the presi- 
dential veto. But here he stopped and returned to the 
ranks of the minority. He had always believed that 
the President would enforce the laws and, having re- 
ceived assurances to that effect from him, protested 
against the attempt to take from him the command of 
the army. 

At the beginning of the session of Congress" Johnson 
moved that the bill to repeal the pardon act be referred 
to the Judiciary Committee, as he took the position that, 
if the President could pardon under the Constitution 
by a general amnesty, or even if he must pardon men 
one by one, the bill was not needed. He maintained 
that the constitutional power of the President to pardon 
was as comprehensive as words can make it, and, 
as the Constitution says nothing as to how he shall 
perform the power, he may grant a pardon by a general 
or a special proclamation. '^ 

Washington's course after the whiskey insurrection 
and Hamilton's language in the Federalist confirmed 

'- On December 4. 
"On December 17. 



156 REVERDY JOHNSON 

this view. The power to pardon could not well be given 
to two departments of government and the only control'* 
Congress can have over offenses created by statute is 
to repeal the statute. A pardon is matter in pais and 
must be proved to a court, but a proclamation must 
be noted by a court, as the blockade proclamation was 
noted in the prize case. The President, who had implied 
powers as well as Congress, may pardon conditionally. 
The clause authorizing Congress to pass laws "necessary 
and proper" has "no operation whatever," as the courts 
show. A power without authority to carry it out would 
be a gross absurdity. The Constitution was made for 
war, as well as for peace. If the President, or the Attor- 
ney-General, had listened to Johnson's advice, a gen- 
eral amnesty would have been declared long ago, except 
in one or two test cases, in which the courts might 
decide whether there was a right of secession and 
whether, after the close of an insurrection which was 
so great that it was necessary to treat those engaged 
in* it as public enemies, they stood, as to a charge of 
treason, as subjects of another nation. As to the first 
question, Johnson thought the opinion would be unani- 
mous; as to the second, he was in doubt. Some said 
that when belligerent rights were granted, the commis- 
sion of treason became impossible. While the failure 
to give amnesty is the President's, the failure to try 
those accused is that of the grand jury and of the 
court. It is a reproach that Jefferson Davis had been 
incarcerated for nearly two years without a trial. If he 
is a prisoner of war, he should have been discharged at 
the end of the war. The civil authorities were not 
ready to take him from the President. Reverdy Johnson 

'* On January 4. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 57 

would have paroled, or bailed, Davis "long since" and 
thought that, if he should die in prison, our responsi- 
bility would be like Napoleon's, when he killed the Due 
d'Enghien. The apparent purpose of the repeal act is 
that, "in the future, hard, inexorable justice is to be 
meted out to our Southern brethren, that generosity, 
forgiveness, mercy, pardon are no longer to be our 
policy." Our subdued enemies are loyal. Robert E. 
Lee's son recently refused to drink to the fallen flag, 
while our experience with Tories, in Shay's Rebellion, 
and in the whiskey insurrection, shows the value of 
clemency. Howe said that John Brown had been hung 
and Jefferson Davis should be hung. Johnson responded 
that he did not attack the "humanity, during the war 
of the government," which had no "more zealous sup- 
porter" than he. Johnson had disapproved of hanging 
Brown and thought that Virginia lost hold on the human- 
ity of the other States through that act. He thvought 
Davis could be tried in any State, in which there was 
an overt act of treason during the rebellion, but the 
attorney-general thought he could only be tried in 
Virginia. Johnson also thought that a district judge 
alone could try capital cases, but Taney had held that 
a circuit judge must be present in such trials and, as 
the Supreme Court judges had not yet reassigned them- 
selves, the trial of Davis was further delayed. In spite 
of Johnson's efforts, the bill passed the Senate by a vote 
of twenty-seven to seven. '^ 

Johnson was no blind partisan of the executive. He 
thought that pension agents should be appointed with 
the consent of the Senate and that it would be "an 

^' The President probably agreed with Reverdy Johnson and neither signed 
nor vetoed the bill, vide 2 Blaine's Twenty Years, p. 282. 



158 REVERDY JOHNSON 

abuse of the power of the President" to reappoint a 
rejected man.'*^ In another speech,^' he said such re- 
appointment would be "a decided outrage upon the 
Constitution," as it would enable the President to destroy 
the power of the Senate, by recess appointments. The 
President, however, had a precedent for that power, in 
an opinion of the attorney-general. Johnson never had 
the question to decide when he was attorney -general, 
but told President Taylor that, if it came before him as 
an original question, he would decide against the 
power. The matter was different as to the removal of 
officers. In the first session of Congress, this matter 
was decided in favor of the power of the President, by 
the casting vote of Vice-President Adams, and, in Jack- 
son's administration, the Senate and the Bank of the 
United States both acquiesced in the President's removal 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, while the Senate re- 
jected the view that, in the appointment of Taney^' as 
Secretary, the President was guilty of usurpation and 
violation of the contract between the United States and 
the Bank. If a President reappointed a rejected man, 
he should send to the Senate a statement of reasons, 
such as newly discovered facts. It is a serious question 
whether continued reappointment is not ground for im- 
peachment. We should not have a dual President. A 
man who always agrees with the President ought not 
to be in the cabinet. Johnson was not "for making a 
cipher of any department of government, yet he felt 
that it was all important that the executive should be 
a unit," in order that the President may see the laws 
faithfully executed. If he has a Secretary of State whom 

'* On January 8. 

" On January 10. 

'* Johnson thought the Senate was right. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 159 

he does not trust, he should not leave him in office and, 
if he suspend him and because the Senate thinks the 
reason is insufficient, the Secretary of State should 
remain in office, "the organ with foreign nations will 
be a Secretary of State of the Senate. So of other 
portfolios — no man will take them temporarily." 

On January ii, Johnson spoke upon the tenure of 
office act, which prevented the President from removing 
officials, without the consent of the Senate, and provided 
for the punishment of one taking office contrary to the 
act. Johnson secured the amendment of the act, by 
permitting the President to continue making recess ap- 
pointments. Edmunds, who had charge of the measure, 
yielded, when Johnson showed the absurdity and expense 
of calling the Senate together, whenever there should 
be a death of a district judge or a minister who was 
carrying an important negotiation with a foreign court. 
The Constitution had not so intended. The Senate^^ is 
part of the appointing power and, if the possession of 
that power carries the possibility of abuse, it shares 
in that possibility. Commentators say that the legisla- 
ture is more apt to usurp power than the President. 

Few agreed with President Johnson, who followed 
Lincoln's policy as to the Southern States. In our gov- 
ernment there will be parties, but the Senate was merely 
trying to secure a party end, when it provided that, if 
the President reappoints those rejected by the Senate, 
they shall have no salary. John Adams had said^" that 
he thought that there would be danger from the Senate's 
wishing to use its influence for its political friends and 
against its enemies. After the election of 1828, Clay 
and the Whigs found fault with Jackson for his removals, 

^' On January 15. 
*' Vide 2 Story 394. 



l60 REVERDY JOHNSON 

following Marcy's "mischievous doctrine" that "to the 
victor belong the spoils," but the people voted that the 
President was clothed with that power. Williams of 
Oregon had cited Hamilton as writing, in the Federalist, 
that the Senate must join in removals. As DeWitt 
remarks, '^i " It was a dangerous experiment to cite author- 
ities when Reverdy Johnson was to reply," for he proved 
that Hamilton changed his mind, after he became Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. ^2 After an examination of 
cases, ^' he warned the Senate that these acts may cause 
revolution, as the alien and sedition laws did. 

A latitudinarian construction of the Constitution, the absorp- 
tion of nearly all power into the legislative department of the 
government, an unwillingness to submit to the judgment, an 
interference with what may have heretofore been considered the 
legitimate powers of the President .... these are the 
symptoms of the times. 

He appealed to reason and to the ballots and believed 
that, when the excitement was over, the "Constitution 
will be restored in all its integrity and each department 
of the government be permitted to exercise every power 
which the Constitution, as construed in the past, vests 
in it."^^ On the eighteenth, he made another powerful 
address. He was "no party friend of the President of 
the United States, in the strict sense of the term." 
The President has erred, but he is honest and patriotic 
and has fallen in the estimation of the Representatives, 

*' Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, p. i86. 

** See also speech of January i6. 

^Marbury v. Madison; Dred Scott Case, which did not deny presidential 
power to remove; U. S. v. Guthrie 17 Howard; Ex parte Hennen 13 Peters 
250. He also then and on January 14 defended Madison and Jefferson for 
their acts in 1798 and maintained that neither contemplated nullification. 

** On January 17, Johnson's ironical disposition was shown in his smoothing 
down trouble between McDougall and Sumner. 



REVERDY JOHNSON l6l 

"because a new state of things has arisen," since his 
election, "in which he differs from the men by whom 
he was elevated to power." Johnson believed that the 
President would rejoice to have peace and harmony. 
He had been "true to his duty to the country, according 
to his understanding" of it, had tried to make the United 
States the honor and admiration of the world, and had 
endeavored to secure to each individual his rights. The 
President had said many things he had better left unsaid 
and was by nature impetuous. "Sprung from the hum- 
blest walks of life and uneducated," he made too many 
stump speeches, but he never quailed before difficulties. 
During the war he had been patriotic and, as President, 
he had tried to reorganize the States, as Lincoln had, 
and to have them brought into the Union at once. He 
submitted to the overriding of his veto. Sumner said 
he should be "kicked out" and then, in righteous indig- 
nation, Johnson rebuked him as having put himself out 
of the pale of Andrew Johnson's judges, if the threats 
of the House of Representatives to impeach him were 
carried out. Sumner was a friend of Lincoln and never 
objected to his turning men out, and he should not 
now have attacked the President as he did, since he thus 
prejudged the case.^^ 

For the last time, Johnson spoke upon the tenure of 
office bill upon February 6. He referred again to the 
removals of cabinet officers by Jackson and asked 
whether we should allow precedent to rule, or always 
reopen questions. Cabinet officers are not appointed to 
thwart, but to aid the President of the United States. 
It is proposed to say to any President, "who may have 
been mistaken in relation to the character or the ability 

*^ He showed Edmunds that his amendments would prevent men appointed 
during a session from, holding office until its end. 



1 62 REVERDY JOHNSON 

of the men whom he had selected to advise him," that 
he shall not change them. 

When Sumner attacked the Secretary of the Treasury 
in the debate on the legislative appropriation bill,*^ 
Johnson came to his defense and praised him for refus- 
ing to change employes for political reasons. It is a 
vice to appoint men, "who had nothing to recommend 
them but mere party services, in some ward controversy 
or some county controversy." These assaults on high 
officials, unless founded on well ascertained facts, serve 
no purpose whatever, but to injure the good name of 
the country.*^ He stated his regret, in another speech,'* 
that Motley, our minister to Austria, should have spoken 
disrespectfully of the President and the Secretary of 
State and should have expressed an opinion hostile to 
the republican form of government and favorable to 
monarchy. 

Johnson favored^^ a six years' term for the President 
without reelection and felt there was no danger for the 
liberties of the people in the change, for it was clear 
that the President was impotent to carry out a policy 
against Congress. The President is the constitutional 
commander of the army and a provision in a bill that 
the general of the army shall have headquarters in 
Washington and that no orders of a military^" character 
shall be issued, except in accordance with this bill, is 
unconstitutional. Fessenden said that the people are 

*^ On February 7. 

'^ On December 20, Williams of Oregon objected to receiving anonymous 
letters, because the clerks' pay had not been raised, and Johnson, sympathizing 
with him, managed to include in his speech a defense of the Supreme Court from 
attacks in the Republican newspapers, because of the decision in Ex parte 
Milligan. 

88 On February 2. 

*' On February 11. 

'" On February 26. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 63 

sovereign, that they have retained sovereignty over the 
army and that the legislative department is the one in 
which the absolute sovereignty of the people is placed. 
Johnson quickly responded: 

In one sense, the people is sovereign. They can, in constitu- 
tional mode, change their political institutions from time to 
time;^^ but, in the exercise of their sovereignty, it is for them 
to decide how, in any particular constitution, that sovereignty 
shall be exercised and they have delegated such portion of it 
as they thought proper to delegate to each of the three depart- 
ments of the government. To Congress are intrusted "the 
particular legislative powers," to the President the whole execu- 
tive power and the commandership in chief of the army, even 
against the will of Congress. If Lincoln, or any other man 
who had the confidence of Congress, were alive, no such law 
would have been passed. If the President should order Gen- 
eral Grant to leave Washington and he should refuse, the 
President could not go himself and issue orders, under the 
provisions of the bill. To depart from the Constitution, under 
any circumstances, is hazardous. I said during the existence 
of the rebellion, and I repeat it now, that, if I had been the 
President of the United States, I would have often done acts 
which the Constitution of the United States would not have 
authorized, if, in my judgment, I believed they were necessary 
to maintain the integrity of the government. 

For this reason, he had voted for recent measures of 
reconstruction and, in spite of censure, would do so 
again, if necessary, to escape from a revolutionary con- 
dition. This bill was not necessary.^- 

Johnson held that the bill for the payment of claims 
in insurrectionary States should include citizens in such 
territory as Louisiana, which was in possession of the 

'^ Johnson showed that Sumner was mistaken in quoting Kent. 
'* The obnoxious clause was carried by vote of 28 to 8. 



I 64 REVERDY JOHNSON 

United States from the early part of 1862 and which 
contained many loyal men, or, indeed, in any territory 
which came into the possession of the Union forces 
during the war and so continued until its end.®* He 
maintained that a pardon reinstated®^ a person to the 
condition he occupied prior to his offence and that it 
was wrong to refuse to pay disloyal pardoned men 
claims accruing before the rebellion. Loyal men are 
creditors of the South and rely on these claims to meet 
part of their debt. Whether the claims were assigned 
to loyal men before or after the rebellion mattered not, 
for the United States should not confiscate debts because 
the creditor had at one time been guilty of treason, 
when the confiscation would injure a loyal man.®^ A 
few days later, an interesting colloquy, showing John- 
son's courtesy, took place between him and Trumbull. 
Johnson said it was our duty to pay assessors who acted 
in 1865, but could not take the oath. Trumbull re- 
marked that this was demoralizing, as it was equivalent 
to saying that the man should be paid, whether he 
collected the money illegally or not, Johnson replied, 
with asperity, that, in reading him a lecture, Trumbull 
was lecturing three-fourths of the Senate, who "may 
have as nice a sense of morals and honor" as he. Trum- 
bull retorted that Johnson, with "all his self-compla- 
cency," cannot have forgotten that he raised the point 
of morals, and Johnson closed the incident with a soft 
answer that he never knew Trumbull when he was not 
right on questions of morals or law, "and I sometimes 
doubt whether I am."®^ 

"'On February 5. 

'^On February 23. 

'^Johnson, in vain, voted against the resolution which passed, 25 to 6. 

'* The amendment then passed, 33 to 13. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 65 

On the bill providing for the government of the South- 
ern States,^' Johnson offered the Blaine amendment to 
the effect that, when in any State, the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment had been adopted and the franchise given to all 
male citizens (except felons and traitors) and a new 
constitution adopted, the State shall be readmitted. 
He believed the Senate was independent and was bound 
to exercise its own discretion without regard to the fear 
that, with that proviso, the House might defeat, or the 
President veto, the bill. He acted "without consulting 
the political friends, with whom it is my pleasure gen- 
erally to act." Differing from the majority of the Sen- 
ate, he held that the Southern States are now in the 
Union and that the citizens of these States are entitled 
to all Constitutional guarantees of personal liberty." 
When the Civil War ceased, the power to suppress insur- 
rection, under which the Federal government carried on 
the struggle, came to an end. The executive and judi- 
cial departments have recognized the Southern States. 
If Virginia has not been a State since secession, she 
could not consent to the division of her territory and 
so West Virginia is no State. Men have an instinctive 
repugnance to military rule. The reconstruction bill of 
1866 was intended to "provide for restoring the States 
lately in insurrection to their political rights." Now 
there is no insurrection, nor do occasional acts of vio- 
lence, nor the fact that the murderer of a black man 
can not be punished, constitute it. He believed there 
was less crime in the South than in Massachusetts or 
New York. In Oregon, the constitutional convention, 
of which Senator Williams had been a member, had 
provided that no negro should come into the State and 
yet Oregon received no military government. The war 

" On February 15. 



I 66 REVERDY JOHNSON 

had convinced the Southern people that their peculiar 
notions of State sovereignty can not be maintained and 
they are now loyal. Military despotism for the South 
is now proposed, indefinite in length; but, with this 
amendment, the bill provides for the termination of that 
despotism. Is the Supreme Court to be told that they 
shall not issue a habeas corpus writ? Johnson applauded 
the statement of the chief justice that he would not 
hold court in a State where martial law prevailed. 
Johnson should vote against the bill, if amended, as 
he believed the Federal government had no right to 
control suffrage in the States; but, with the amendment, 
the bill would be less objectionable. He closed with a 
defense of the law-abiding character of Maryland. 

On February 20, he spoke again upon the bill. Hold- 
ing that the South had the right to be represented, he 
had solicitude beyond words on account of its exclusion; 
but, since Congress took a different view, there seemed 
no hope of seeing it reinstated at an early day. The 
reputation and the material interests of the whole coun- 
try suffer. Nothing could be worse than the condition 
in which the South was placed. The character of the 
Southerners, "as men, had been aspersed, in terms which 
have caused me nothing but the deepest regret .... 
In all particulars, moral and political, intellectual and 
Christian, they are our equals. The very battles they 
have waged, in seeking to destroy the government, 
exhibited deeds of valor, of which Rome in her proudest 
days might have boasted." Johnson had reconsidered 
his position of opposition to the bill. He must acquiesce 
in the decision of the majority, "believing it will end, 
in a comparatively short time, in restoring the Southern 
States. I am unwilling to have this Congress adjourn, 
without adopting some measure which holds out hope 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 67 

that this will be the result of our deliberations." He 
would vote for the bill, in the hope that it would "rescue 
the country from the perilous predicament" in which 
it stood. "If there be a feeling which should animate 
the heart of every American, it should be one of gener- 
osity, magnanimity and charity for the men who, al- 
though they sought to break asunder the cords of the 
Union, are now looking with solicitude to their being 
reinstated." He longed to see the United States, "at 
the earliest period, a people one and indivisible." 

The supporters of the President were enraged at this 
change of base and Gideon Welles wrote in his diary ^^ 
that Johnson, "the Senatorial trimmer, gave his vote 
in the Senate for this infamous bill." Stanton quoted 
him as an example and authority. The President vetoed 
the bill and it passed over the veto, the vote in the 
Senate, on A-Iarch 2, being 38 to 10. In explaining his 
vote against the veto, Johnson said that he regretted 
the conclusion and tone of the veto message, which 
contained unsound legal propositions and errors of rea- 
soning, and feared that it may result in continued tur- 
moil and peril. When Johnson announced that "I 
shall give the same vote as before," there was applause 
from the galleries, until checked by the President. John- 
son, in an eloquent speech, said he was not governed 
by desire of applause. 

My motions, if I know myself, were pure and patriotic. I 
see before me a distressed, a desolated country and, in the 
measure before you I think I see the means through which 
it may be rescued and restored ere long to prosperity and a 
healthful condition and the free institutions of our country 

preserved I have reached that period of life, when 

I can have no other ambition than that of serving my country. 

'* Februar>' 2, Diary III, p. 49. 



I 68 REVERDY JOHNSON 

He had always hoped for success and a firm establish- 
ment of the forms of government, securing their respec- 
tive rights to the States and the Union. If the South 
"had succeeded, the cause of constitutional liberty would 
for years, if not forever, have terminated. The effort, 
thank God, failed. The power of the government, under 
the Providence of God, has proved able to arrest and 
defeat it and the South now, as I believe, is willing, in 
good faith, and anxious to abide by the result." How 
shall the government be restored "to its original integ- 
rity and the States, as vital to that integrity, be restored 
to their former constitutional condition." Johnson be- 
lieved that, at the moment when the war ended, the 
States were in the Union and possessed the exclusive 
power to change their government, so that "no terms 
can be enacted, either by the President or by Congress, 
as conditions to be performed, before they are entitled 
to representation." He had never justified the position 
of Lincoln, nor of Johnson, who held that the executive, 
without the sanction of Congress, had authority to 
require conditions of readmission. The recent Congres- 
sional elections show that the people of the United States 
agree to the Congressional theory that that body could 
alone give the right of representation, so the States are 
only to be restored by submitting to the Congressional 
conditions. Johnson, differing both with Congress and 
the Executive, sought "complete restoration of the 
Union" and saw "no way of accomplishing it, but by 
the adoption of the measure." The country is now in 
a state of quasi-war, for ten States are held as conquered 
provinces. This condition is full of peril and, if not 
arrested, the government will be destroyed. The bill 
is no more unconstitutional than the civil rights and 
Freedman's Bureau bills, which the President enforced, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 69 

"as I think he was in duty bound to do." The Supreme 
Court may well refuse to decide on the constitutionality 
of the bill, holding that the termination of the war is a 
political question. The bill is less objectionable than 
the previous ones, for it provides a way for ending the 
military rule. Reflecting and intelligent men of the 
South say they will organize States under this act. If 
the bill fail, one of harsher character will be adopted, 
founded on "the hypothesis that the people of the South 
were to be esteemed legally as conquered enemies and 
their land and other property on that account, as liable 
to confiscation and forfeiture." The Supreme Court 
might declare such a law unconstitutional, but, in the 
meantime, the uncertainty would produce ruin and, if 
the law proved constitutional, the South would be sur- 
rendered to negroes and the whites driven out. Johnson 
wished to prevent calamity and must throw aside party 
for country, seeking the restoration of the Union, which 
he believed would be accomplished by this bill. Buck- 
alew attacked Johnson's position as inconsistent and 
Johnson replied: 

Consistency in a public man can never propedy be esteemed 
a virtue, when he becomes satisfied that it will operate to the 
prejudice of his country. The pride of opinion, which more 
or less belongs to us all, becomes, in my judgment, in a public 
man a crime, when it is indulged in at the sacrifice, or hazard, 
of the public safety. 

The President and the minority party were powerless 
and the question confronting Johnson was: "What shall 
I do for the South in this present exigency and for the 
country?" He had no fear to submit his conduct to 
the judgment of posterity. He would have rejoiced at 
a Democratic victory in the past autumn, but there was 



170 REVERDY JOHNSON 

none. Since the Supreme Court said the insurrection 
was a war and one of the incidents of war is confisca- 
tion, that Court may also say it is a political question, 
if Congress holds the Southerners to be public enemies 
and thus the South may be destroyed. 

In his disgust at Johnson's action, Welles bitterly 
wrote^^ that in the Senate "party dominated over 
country," If several hesitated, "the recent extraordi- 
nary course of Reverdy Johnson decided them to submit 
to the demands of party." Johnson violated his oath 
in voting for the bill, and "his apostasy" came, because 
his son-in-law was an "earnest candidate for the office 
of district-attorney of Maryland and he could not, 
under existing circumstances, expect to be confirmed by 
the Senate were the President to nominate him." Welles 
thought that Johnson fancied "that his position as 
Senator, and one of the judges of the President in case 
of impeachment," would secure the selection of his son- 
in-law. In his rage, Welles added: 

I have no doubt this old political prostitute has been governed 
by these necessary personal considerations. He has a good 
deal of legal ability but is not overburdened with political 
principles. This conduct occasions less surprise on that ac- 
count. Sad is the condition of the country, when such men 
influence its destiny. 

On the next day, Welles wrote that the President told 
him^"" that Reverdy Johnson had just written, asking 
that his son-in-law, Ridgely, be nominated as district- 
attorney, which was "as cool a piece of assurance as 
he had ever witnessed." Welles added "It does not 
surprise me," and, on the next day, when Ridgely had 

" Diary III 55. 
»«» Diar>- HI 58. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I7I 

been nominated and confirmed, Welles wrote*"' that he 
wondered who influenced the "forbearing" President, 
and added in his Diary, "so much for disregarding prin- 
ciple, conviction and duty." 

When it was proposed to admit Nebraska as a State'"* 
and to require negro suffrage there, '"^ Johnson delivered 
an elaborate historical address, discussing the right to 
make such a requirement through the power to admit new 
States and guarantee a republican form of government. 
He discussed the history of the change of the predominant 
interest in the eastern States from commerce to manu- 
factures, through the influence of the war of 1812 and 
the protective policy since that date. During the last 
five years, the United States had passed through "a 
trial, to which no country in the world was ever before 
subjected," during which "everything was supplied that 
human industry could furnish, every species of manu- 
facture entering into the necessities of an army in the 
field was near at hand, fashioned by the skillful industry 
of the workmen of the United States.". He admitted 
that the system "increases, in time of peace, the cost 
to the consumer of everything which he is obliged to 
get from the manufacturer" and that it is difficult to 
say how much of that tax the consumer paid, but the 
protective system was so useful to the country that he 
was very cautious about admitting new States in the 
West, which seemed to turn to free trade. Nebraska, 

»" Diary III 59. 

'"2 On January 29, he voted to sustain Johnson in his veto of the bill admit- 
ting Colorado as a State. 

^"^ On December 19. On the 17th the bill had come up and Johnson asked 
that a notice of the death of Wright of New Jersey might be made and questioned 
what would happen, if the ten days, during which the President might hold a 
bill, fell within a recess of Congress. 



172 REVERDY JOHNSON 

with not over 50,000 people, had too small a population 
for a State, in any case, and had better be kept a terri- 
tory, unless it were necessary for the protection of her 
citizens to have her admitted as a State. The North 
cannot say this, for they propose to place ten States 
under a territorial government, and the only argument 
for admission remaining is the desire to protect a politi- 
cal party. 

"Nullification is at an end, thank God for that, seces- 
sion is equally dead" and the South will never leave the 
Union, but the great West should be looked to, for she 
will not long consent to have the East manage her 
affairs and, if a constitutional convention be ever called 
and the West have a majority in it, there is nothing to 
prevent her from insisting on a change of the equal 
representation in the Senate of the States. When Ne- 
braska is admitted, she may disregard the restriction 
on the right to regulate the franchise, for that is a sub- 
ject in the power of a State and Nebraska, being equal 
with the older States, will possess all their powers.^"* 
Before the adoption of the Constitution, the States were 
equal and that document changed nothing, except to 
delegate certain powers to the United States. It would 
lead to very perilous consequences to hold that a State 
constitution was unrepublican, which denied to any citi- 
zen the right to vote. The Federal Convention had not 
for its object to change the forms of the State govern- 
ments, but to preserve and protect life, liberty and happi- 
ness, which the declaration of independence said were 
inalienable rights of the people and which were thought 
to be in imminent jeopardy, because of the demon- 
strated inefficiency of the government of the Confeder- 

"^ Brown interrupted with the statement that "we can take away the right 
to do wrong", and Johnson asked him what that right was. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1/3 

ation. Contemporary construction is controlling, to the 
effect that the Federal Constitution made it no duty of 
the United States to assail every State constitution. 
Even the Committee of Fifteen of the last session, by 
drafting the Fourteenth Amendment, showed they 
thought they had no power in the matter. Pushing the 
point further, he asked whether, if Oregon would be 
forced to permit the Chinese to vote under the guarantee 
clause, the Pacific Coast would not soon become disloyal 
and exercise "that inherent right which belongs to every 
State and every people to war against tyranny." The 
term "Government" does not mean the Constitution, 
but those exercising the power. The guarantee clause 
means that, "whenever the criminal ambition of those 
who are in the possession" of the government "induces 
them to pervert its powers and to assail the people, 
the people are to be protected against any change in 
the form of government that may be brought about by 
such causes." "Every government is republican in 
point of form, which corresponds with the governments 
in existence when the Constitution was adopted." Most 
of these governments, in 1789, excluded the black man 
from voting. No one then thought that the United 
States was given a right to interfere with the existing 
conditions and a different view of the Constitution would 
place the country in the power of Congress, which might 
destroy it. Otherwise, 

I have no fear but that the political institutions of the United 
States will endure for ages, and I trust forever, extending as 
they do from ocean to ocean, distributing their blessings 
everywhere and enabling men, with perfect assurance, to feel 
no apprehension, and that they never will be called upon to 
feel any apprehension against any violence from within, or 
anv invasion from abroad. 



174 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Some weeks later"^ he opposed Edmunds, who had 
said that Congress might keep Nebraska as a territory 
forever and might impose whatever condition the mem- 
bers pleased, at the time of admission. Johnson replied 
that the power of Congress was to admit a new State, 
that is one 

partaking precisely of all the characteristics, and possessing 
all the powers, and having all the rights that characterize and 
are possessed by the States that were in the Union, when the 
Constitution was ratified. Otherwise there would be no har- 
monious whole. There is no provision in the Constitution 
which gave Congress the power to interfere with elections, as 
is shown by the provision that the electors of the House of 
Representatives should be the same as for the most numerous 
house of the State legislatures. 

Johnson had just won in the Supreme Court, for hold- 
ers of Arkansas swamp lands, a case, in which they 
claimed exemption from taxation. He held that a State 
might "enter into a contract," not alone in relation to 
the right of taxation, but also "in relation to any subject 
which did not impair her sovereignty and take away her 
ability to hold an equal place among her sister States." 
Nebraska had already elected her Senators and, if the 
bill for admission of Nebraska pass, Edmunds will not 
object to swearing in these men, which fact showed 
that, in a sense, Nebraska is already a State. Congress 
cannot create a State. "It must be the work of the 
citizens." The follower of Stephen A. Douglas had 
not recanted from the creed of popular sovereignty. 

When Sumner asked for further guarantees before 
reconstruction be completed,*"^ Johnson replied that 
there should be delay, to see if the South would accept 

**0n January 9. 
>««On March 11. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 175 

the previous exaction. He had assured Southern corre- 
spondents that nothing more would be required and 
hoped not to have to retract this statement. The 
Southerners had been punished and both the loyal men 
and the freedmen will be safe under the bill already 
passed. Sumner wished to see the South restored, but 
wished to see those States "come back" by the vote of 
the blacks just emancipated and that of some three or 
four thousand men, calling themselves loyal men, many 
of whom in the beginning were Secessionists, "while the 
intelligence, the virtue, the refinement of the South is 
to be neglected." From that course of action the horrors 
of Santo Domingo may come.*°^ In the debate on the 
supplementary reconstruction bill, Johnson urged that 
we cannot subsist long with ten States out of the Union. 
It is a government of States and it was the duty of 
Congress to bring back the rebel States as soon as possi- 
ble. "There did not exist, in the States of the Union, 
any authority by which they could legally escape from 
the Union." "The attempt to escape, therefore, was of 
itself illegal and imposed upon us the duty of arresting 
and defeating it, not for the mere purpose of arresting 
and defeating an insurrection, but for the purpose of 
restoring the Union." The authority to add territory 
was only that the people of the territory might be fitted 
for Statehood and we are guardians for them. If there 
is a majority in one of the seceded States "inimical to 
a restoration of that particular State," that majority 
should be forced in. Howard of Michigan had said 
no government, founded on the will of a minority, can 
be republican, yet he voted to exclude a large portion 
of the people of these States from voting. To continue 

'"^ On March 9, he defended Alexandria for excluding the blacks from voting, 
on the advice of all the lawyers in that town. 



176 REVERDY JOHNSON 

military rule will be expensive and will sacrifice the 
principles of freedom and liberty upon which our insti- 
tutions rest. The majority of those voting, and not 
of the electors, should be sufficient to adopt the new 
Southern State constitutions, lest'"^^ some whites may pre- 
fer to keep the States under military rule and may induce 
negroes to stay away from the polls by misrepresenta- 
tions, as these negroes are in a "state of absolute igno- 
rance, by the policy of the South for the past tw^enty 
years, lest the institution be in peril through the knowl- 
edge of what were the rights of man." A State govern- 
ment should not be forced on an intelligent people, but 
the negroes, whom Johnson was willing to permit to 
vote, were not intelligent. 

I vote for the original bill, or the amended report by the 
Committee on the Judiciary,*''^ from a sincere desire to have 
the States back, on almost any terms. I would not be in favor 
of negro suffrage, if I was permitted to vote upon that ques- 
tion alone, but I believe that the interest of the country requires 
that the States should be back, even requiring negro suffrage. 

Persistent in his opposition to a requirement that a 
majority of the registry be cast for the proposed constitu- 
tions, he carried a narrow majority of the Senate with 
him."« 

His patriotism was again shown when he voted to 
pass the completed supplementary reconstruction bill 
over the President's veto."^ He had been so assidu- 
ous in devotion to the business of Congress that he 
objected to an adjournment over the holidays,"'' yet he 

"«0n March 16. "'On March 23. 

»»»0n March 18. "* On December 14. 

""The vote was 24 to 21. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 177 

denied Sumner's"' assertion that, on the adjournment 
of the session at the end of March, eight miUion people 
were left unprotected and subject to a despot, as well 
as Chandler's claim that the President would not exe- 
cute the reconstruction laws, on the ground that he 
thought them unconstitutional. Reverdy Johnson had 
talked with the President and had been told by him 
that it was an insult to suppose he would not execute a 
law passed in a constitutional way by Congress. Mili- 
tary governors had been appointed as soon as possible. 
There was no danger that the Supreme Court could 
decide the laws unconstitutional before Congress met 
in December, as that Court can only hear appeals. Nor 
was there need to watch the President, as he had been 
left no power except to execute the laws. The people 
desire Congress to adjourn, not because they are dis- 
satisfied with what has been done, but rather for fear 
that it may do something rash, if it continues to sit.^^* 
He urged"^ that a corporation could not be disloyal 
and, therefore, the banks, who alleged that the money 
captured with Jefferson Davis had been seized from 
them, should have the right to sue for the money in 
the Court of Claims. He said"^ it would be a hardship 
to deprive masters of enlisted slaves of the payment 
previously provided by law. Maryland had paid $ioo 
to each master pari passu with the national govern- 

i"On March 23. 

1" On March 28, he stated that he agreed with the proposition that Con- 
gress, by agreement of both houses, can adjourn from month to month, or to 
any specified time. He held that there was no ground for believing that the 
minority can adjourn from day to day, when the houses have voted to adjourn 
to July I and then, unless otherwise ordered by Congress, from July 2 to 
December. 

"^On March 16. 

"*0n January 7. 



178 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ment.^^^ He voted against suspending the payment to 
the masters for slaves who had volunteered in the army, 
as it would violate the plighted faith of the nation, and 
on March 23 he protested against moneys for colored 
troops being paid General O. O. Howard unless he 
were bonded. 

When the bill to regulate the suffrage in the District 
of Columbia was under discussion, Johnson spoke in 
opposition to woman suffrage, which did not then exist 
elsewhere in the United States. 

Ladies have duties peculiar to themselves which can not 
be discharged by anybody else; the nurture and education of 
their children, the demands upon them consequent upon the 
preservation of their households. 

If the question of voting were submitted to "the 
ladies, in the true acceptation of the term," it would be 
rejected. They would feel it dishonor to "undergo, 
what is often the degradation of seeking to vote, particu- 
larly in the cities, getting up to the polls, crowded out 
and crowded in." Men vote because they serve in the 
militia and perform similar duties, which women are 
not expected to do. Woman is protected by man and 
needs not to protect herself. 

Nature has not made her for the rough and tumble, so to 
speak, of life. She is intended to be dehcate. She is intended 
to soften the asperities and roughness of the male sex. She 
is intended to comfort him in the days of his trial, not to par- 
ticipate herself actively in the contest, either in the forum, 
in the council chamber, or on the battlefield. 

The strong minded women are exceptional. The pres- 
ence of ladies at the polls will not turn a blackguard into 

"^On March 21. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 79 

a gentleman. In Baltimore elections are as orderly as 
elsewhere, but, 

in times of high party excitement, it is impossible to preserve 
that order which would be sufficient to protect a delicate female 
from insult, and no lady would venture to run the hazard of 
being subject to the insults that she would be almost certain 
to receive. 

The bill, as passed, gave no suffrage to women, but 
gave it to negroes. Andrew Johnson promptly vetoed 
the bill and Reverdy Johnson was one of the minority 
of ten who voted to sustain the veto,i'^ while twenty- 
nine voted to override it. He said that Congress had 
a right to pass the act, for the only limits to its powers 
over the District were found in the guarantees to Indi- 
viduals. For many years after the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, It was thought that, having accepted the terri- 
tory from Maryland and Virginia, Congress should not 
interfere with slavery In the District. He had not 
accepted this view, though Calhoun and Clay had done 
so and even Adams had said It would be wrong to abolish 
slavery there without a popular vote. The people of 
the District who protest against this act, have a right 
to be respectfully heard and their views should be fol- 
lowed. If they are well founded. Congress had not yet 
given the freedmen In the States the suffrage under the 
Constitution. Morrill said that In 1789 negroes voted 
in every State but South Carolina and Johnson retorted 
"Well, the States regulated suffrage." The negro had 
not been given the right to vote in Ohio or Maryland, 
and should not be given It In the District, where many 
of them are living "In squalid misery. In a sense paupers." 
He referred to the Chinese and maintained that there 
would be distinction on account of color, so long as the 

"* On January 7. 



l80 REVERDY JOHNSON 

races were not blended. He had no fear of the founda- 
tions of the country being shaken, by executive or by 
legislative usurpations. If these come, they will be re- 
dressed by the "patriotism and the power of the Ameri- 
can people. "*^^ 

Maryland matters demanded much of Johnson's atten- 
tion at this Session, On January 3, Sumner complained 
of the sale of negroes' services for six months, for a year, 
and for two years, as had been done in punishment of 
crime at Annapolis during December and asked that the 
judiciary committee consider the case. Johnson replied 
that slavery may be a punishment for crime according 
to the constitution, and that it is better to wait, as the 
judge, who sentenced the negroes, had already been ar- 
rested and the case is in the United States courts. 

Perhaps there is no State in the Union, in which there is a 
more fixed determination that Slavery, .... on any 
account except for crime, shall not exist, than there is in 
Maryland. 

Creswell, the radical colleague of Johnson, said that 
the Maryland law only referred to blacks and that the 
only service exacted from criminals should be that rend- 
ered the State, which change may be effected by the 
civil rights bill. Maryland's attachment to freedom 
was doubted by Creswell, who advised the Senate to 
watch the State legislature, in any repeal of the slave code. 

^^' As to minor matters concerning the District, on January 19, he advo- 
cated postponing action on the charter of the Baltimore and Potomac Rail- 
road, until Maryland had acted, for that State, having a deep interest in the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, may refuse to permit the new road to pass through 
its territory. On February 9, he objected to disturbing the dead, by removing 
bodies from the Foundry Methodist graveyard, but finally yielded; he spoke 
in favor of the newsboys' home, and opposed limiting the National Capitol 
Insurance Company by its charter to do business in the District alone, as it 
should be empowered to enter such States as may permit it. 



REVERDY JOHNSON l8l 

Later in the session, the Maryland legislature elected 
as Creswell's successor, Philip Francis Thomas, who had 
been Commissioner of Patents and Secretary of the 
Treasury under Buchanan's administration. He had 
lived in retirement during the war and had made an 
intemperate speech against the acts of the majority of 
Congress, when notified of his election. On March i6, 
Johnson presented Thomas's credentials, opposed a 
reference to the Judiciary Committee, and defended 
Thomas's loyalty at the beginning of the. war from a 
charge that he had transferred money to the sub-treasury 
at New Orleans. ^2° Howard complained of Thomas's 
remarks made after his election and Johnson replied 
that, like himself, Thomas may have thought that the 
government of Maryland, as recently administered by 
the suffrages of not more than a fourth of the population, 
was not republican. Nye of Nevada took the position 
that the election, by which the legislature of Maryland 
was chosen, was fraudulent, in that the law prohibiting 
rebels from voting had been disregarded and charged 
that Thomas resigned from Buchanan's cabinet, because 
he did not believe in reenforcing Sumter. Investigation 
should be made before Thomas is sworn. Johnson re- 
marked that, if rumors are taken, we may all be in 
trouble. Sumner and I differ, yet neither is disloyal. 
Investigation may follow Thomas's taking the oath. 
The Senate has no jurisdiction over the legislature of 
Maryland. Nye persisted. The Senate should decide 
for itself on the election of its members and good loyal 
men of Maryland wish to appear before the committee 
to show that Thomas was disloyal. If the Maryland 
legislature is fraudulent, we have the right to inquire 

^*'' He had already transferred money from Arkansas to New Orleans, which 
was all expended before the secession of Louisiana. 



1 82 REVERDY JOHNSON 

into it. Trumbull supported Johnson and said that, 
after the admission of Thomas, the Senate could investi- 
gate the legislature of Maryland. Not everyone disagree- 
ing with us is an enemy of the country. The debate 
became general. Fessenden recalled that, in only two 
cases, had reference of credentials been made to a com- 
mittee^^^ and, in both cases, there were affidavits against 
those bearing credentials, when they presented them."* 
Here, however, there was only rumor and no remon- 
strance had been made. On such rumors, all Democrats 
might be kept out and this is a more extreme case than 
that of Stockton, for there the question was, had the 
legislature elected him rightfully and here the question 
is, was the Maryland Assembly rightfully elected. When 
Sherman said he favored reference of the case to the 
committee, since Thomas's resignation of the Treasury- 
Department had been possibly on the same ground as 
Floyd's, Johnson at once replied: 

If I had been in his situation, I would have concurred with 
the majority of that cabinet, because in the then condition 
of things, I would not have enquired whether there was a law 
or not. I would have enforced the collection of the duties. 

As to the speech reported recently to have been made 
by Thomas, it was printed in the American, a "most 
violent partisan paper," which had often misrepresented 
Johnson, though he took no notice of it. Thomas had 
authorized him to say that "he has not the slightest 
recollection of saying a word, which would have justified 
such a statement" as made in the American. What he 

^1 Stark of Oregon during the war and since that time Patterson of Tennes- 
see, who had taken an oath of office under the Confederacy. 

'22 In both cases the reference was made so as to avoid the need of two-thirds 
vote to expel. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 83 

said was what had been said in Congress, ^^s fj^e f^ct 
that Thomas had not volunteered during the war was 
no proof of disloyalty. 

Stewart of Nevada thought reference should be made 
to a committee, since men will be coming from the States 
lately in rebellion and it will be a dangerous precedent 
not to refer credentials. When Johnson asked if there 
was not a difference betu^een Maryland and the seceding 
States, Stewart replied that there was none between a 
disloyal individual in Maryland and one in South Caro- 
lina, except that the former was more guilty, as the 
whole people were not disloyal and there was Federal 
power to protect him. Johnson asserted that the pre- 
sumption was that a man presenting himself as a Sena- 
tor from Maryland was as loyal as one from Nevada. 
Stewart replied that this might be true as a presump- 
tion, but, "when there is a suggestion that there may 
be guilt, it is then incumbent on the body to investi- 
gate it." The only question was the order of procedure, 
for it was admitted that an investigation will be proper 
at some time. "If we refuse to examine this case at 
this stage, when the suggestion is made hereafter for a 
reference, it will be regarded as a condemnation." 
Conness remarked that he was surprised at Johnson's 
position, for Thomas's resignation of the Treasury in 
1861, on the ground that he could not agree with the 
majority of the cabinet as to the policy to be pursued 
towards South Carolina, showed that there must be 
"a close investigation." He would never vote to admit 
to the Senate, a man, "either so weak or so vicious in 

"' Johnson cited Andrew Jackson's calling two Congressmen traitors, with- 
out any one proposing to impeach him for it; Webster's statement that he 
would not appropriate three mills to Andrew Jackson for war, if the enemy was 
thundering at the gates of the Capitol (which J. Q. Adams said was treason); 
and the bitter denunciation of Andrew Johnson in either house. 



1 84 REVERDY JOHNSON 

1 86 1, as not to be able to find law enough to defend the 
honor and existence of this country" and who even 
left the cabinet for that cause. Sherman added that 
Thomas's singular letter of resignation stated that seces- 
sion was a constitutional act and that South Carolina 
had so withdrawn from the Union that there was no 
authority to enforce the law of the United States in that 
State. Thomas had not aided in the suppression of the 
rebellion and should not be allowed in the Senate, if he 
had really said in his recent speech that in the Senate 
he "would face these men, who now and always were 
traitors to the Union. "^^ Saulsbury of Delaware said 
that the Republicans call opponents names and the 
Gazette had a different report of the speech. " I know, 
living not far from Thomas, that he lived a quiet, peace- 
ful life during the war" and, though a military force 
seized Judge Carmichael for disloyalty, no charge was 
made against Thomas. Johnson attempted to show 
that Sherman and Conness misunderstood Thomas's 
letter. Davis of Kentucky advocated immediate admis- 
sion of Thomas and Howard closed the debate by urging 
reference of the credentials and stating his belief in 
Thomas's disloyalty. ^^^ 

On March 29, Johnson gave up the fight and moved, 
at Thomas's request, that the credentials be referred 
to the Judiciary Committee, which was promptly done."* 

Maryland's political condition was brought before the 

^^* Morton agreed to this. 

***0n March 20, Johnson wrote to Governor Bradford that he would try 
to secure his confirmation in office, but was doubtful of success and very 
doubtful of Thomas's admission. On the 21st, he wrote Bradford again that, 
in spite of Creswell's telegram that Bradford's rejection was absolutely neces- 
sary, he secured confirmation by a vote of 22 to 16. 

^^On the same day, Johnson opposed the publication of the laws in tlio 
Southern papers. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 85 

Senate on March 28, by the receipt of resolves from the 
Maryland Republican Convention/^' protesting against 
a scheme for a State Constitutional Convention and by 
Francis Thomas attacking the Democratic State Admin- 
istration on the floor of the House of Representatives. 
Johnson moved reference of the protest to the Judiciary 
Committee and said that he felt that there should not 
now be such a convention, as it would be "fraught with 
more or less of peril to the peace and prosperity of the 
State" in the present condition of the country and the 
state of feeling in Maryland. When Sumner, on the 
following day, used as an argument for negro suffrage, 
the fact that returned rebels, but not negroes, could 
vote in Maryland, Johnson, prompt as ever in the defence 
of his State, said "there is no State in the Union, where 
private rights of person, and rights of property, are more 
amply protected. There is no judiciary in the land, 
whose duties are more honestly and impartially ad- 
ministered."^^* 

He favored the bankruptcy law, but opposed giving 
the chief justice power to make appointments under 
it, thinking this might tend to make him a party man 
and make people think him such.^" fhe Supreme Court 
had never lent itself to partisanship and the duties of 
its head should be confined to high constitutional and 
legal ones."" He learnedly discussed^'^ the effect of 

"' Signed by Frederick Schley. 

^^^ On January 31, in the tariff debate, Johnson said that he lived in a State 
"which stands between the extremes" and quoted from the message to the 
Assembly of the first Maryland governor elected by the people: "We are not 
given to the rude boreas of northern fanaticism or the hot simoon of Southern 
impetuosity." 

"* On January 19. On March 22, he reiterated his views on this joint. 

""Johnson preferred giving the appointive power to District, rather than 
to Circuit Judges. 

"1 On February i. 



1 86 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Supreme Court decisions, which were pertinent to this 
law, 1^2 and urged that while the law must be uniform, 
it ought not to appropriate to the payment of debts 
property which is not liable under existing State exemp- 
tion laws. The civil troubles had swept away"' many 
men's property, especially in the South, and the law 
should be liberal, so as to relieve men from the slavery 
of debt, whether or not they could show assets equal to 
half their debts and whether or not the insolvent was a 
trader, and the debt a mercantile one. Corporations 
should be allowed to partake of the benefits of the law, 
without forfeiture of their franchises, which are property 
to be sold for the benefit of creditors. He opposed*" 
a provision that no discharge should be valid, except 
with the consent of three-fourths of the creditors, as 
it made the creditor the judge rather than a disinterested 
tribunal. A man who can not pay his debts is no 
repudiator. 

No bankrupt law has ever been passed, except because of 
the large amount of existing debts which were depressing the 
industry of the country and ruining the debtor. When, there- 
fore, a man contracts a debt, the creditor is supposed to know 
that there is in Congress power to discharge a debtor, on his 
delivering up the assets. 

Consequently, the act is valid as well to prior debts 
as to subsequent ones. He objected to Sumner's prop- 
osition to give a test oath to petitioners in bankruptcy, 
who may have been protected by the grant of belliger- 
ent rights. They were once traitors, but are now citi- 
zens and may contract debts. The test oath has hitherto 

^^ E. g. Sturgis V. Crowninshield and Ogden v. Saunders. 
133 On February 4. 
'**0n February 5. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 87 

been only used for officers and quasi-officers. It is 
absurd that a law should not apply to all. The question 
as to whether a rebel debtor is discharged or is allowed 
to do with his property as he will, should not depend 
on a loyal creditor applying for the benefit of the law.*^^ 
Finally, on March 29, he voted with the majority against 
the bankruptcy bill. 

When the tariff bill came up for discussion, ^2® Johnson 
said: 

I have, from the first, been in favor of protecting the domestic 
industry of the country by Congress, having no doubt either 
as to the power or as to the expediency of doing so. 

Since 1828, Congress had several times passed such 
laws and the prosperous condition of the country, which 
enabled it to win in the war, was largely due to the exist- 
ence of the protective system. Since States can 
not protect industries by laying duties, no one can 
do so, unless the United States lay them. Protection 
may be carried to a ruinous extent, of course, and may 
injudiciously reduce revenue from imports, so that the 
country will not have money to pay its debt. The 
tariff should protect the wool grower as well as the manu- 
facturer,!" and the Maryland coal from the Nova Scotia 
product, so as to give the former the Massachusetts 
market, "8 which the Canadian reciprocity treaty took 

"' On March 26, he objected to preference given to creditors and to the post- 
ponement of the effect of the law from June to January. On March 28, he 
advocated abolishing preferences in bankruptcy made after the law passed 
but before June i . 

"•On January 23. 

1" Yet he was not in favor of protecting wool growing and leaving other 
iBterests unprotected. Speech of March i. 

"*0n Januar)' 25. 



I 88 REVERDY JOHNSON 

from it.*^^ The tariff system"" was forced on New Eng- 
land by Southern votes and though she protested, she 
availed herself of it and grew rich thereunder. He also 
was interested in having efficient merchant shipping and 
believed that shipbuilding should be fostered, since the 
"arm of the country in case of danger is strengthened 
through the instrumentality of a commer- 
cial marine.""^ When the internal revenue act was 
under discussion, "^ he opposed a tax on cotton, as bad 
policy, liable to injure an industry much greater than the 
wool one. 

He maintained that a "violation of a national agree- 
ment, under any circumstances, is full of peril, and it 
is especially mischievous when that violation relates to 
some financial operation of the government." There- 
fore,"' he favored the taking up of the compound interest 
notes and the issue of three per cent notes in their place, 
for the government had made a contract with the holders 
of legal tender notes, not to issue over $400,000,000 of 
them. The original issue of legal tender notes was open 
to great objection, but they can not be gotten out of the 
way at once. 

On miscellaneous topics, we find Johnson asserting 
that a married woman should not be made a feme sole 
at law,"* and advocating the preservation of the Choctaw 

"' Creswell also defended the tariff on coal, but Fessenden replied that the 
Baltimore and Ohio and the Chespeake and Ohio freights were the enemies 
of Maryland coal. 

"° On January 29 and 30. 

•*' On March 23, he opposed the bill permitting the sale of ships to belliger- 
ents, saying that the proposed law might complicate matters with England and 
would repeal the excellent neutrality laws of 1798. 

1** On March i. 

"'On February 27. 

"* On February 9. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I89 

and Chickasaw funds that their schools be not closed."* 
He had "always voted "^ against intrusting the custody of 
the Indians to the army.""^ He advocated larger sal- 
aries for those very important officers, the judges of the 
Court of Claims."* Congressmen have other sources 
of income, but judges have not. Heads of bureaus are 
mere accounting officers, do not require the same kind 
of ability, and should receive less salary. Judges of the 
Supreme Court also receive too small salaries. Taney 
"lived in the most economical way possible" and could 
not entertain a single person at his table, yet "left the 
world with a family almost wholly dependent upon 
others." When it was proposed to vote indemnity 
to military officers,"* Johnson expressed doubts as to 
whether an indemnity act would be sanctioned by the 
court and opposed prohibiting courts from entertaining 
jurisdiction in the case. He felt that we should go to 
the verge of the Constitution in protecting officers, in 
all acts they honestly believed necessary to protect the 
government from the effort to destroy it, but this bill 
went too far and prevented an injured citizen from suing, 
in a civil tribunal, any person who acted under presi- 
dential authority. Congress assumed to say that all 
the President's acts are legal and are legally performed 
and, even if Congress is without power to pass such a 
law constitutionally, that the Court shall not examine it. 
Though he appreciated the importance of the Court 

'** On March 20. 

"« On March 9. 

"' In a speech on the printing of the Congressional Globe, on February 8, 
which he thought ought to be printed by the government were it not for the 
existing contract, Johnson said "the true mode of interpretmg a law is to 
interpret it by itself without any reference to facts aliunde." 

'"On February 8. 

'*^ On March 2 . 



•190 REVERDY JOHNSON 

of Claims, yet he felt that the Senate was competent to 
pass on legal questions, such as grants of public lands, 
and opposed reference of such a claim^*° to the Court. 
He favored appropriations for such internal improve- 
ments as were in the river and harbor bill, believing^^* 
that it was "important to the whole country that the 
navigation of the western waters should be as good 
as it can be made."^^^ 

On May 8, 1867, he argued, unsuccessfully, for the 
defendant in the case of Virginia v. West Virginia in 
the Supreme Court. ^^^ He first considered v/hether the 
case entitled the complainant to relief. Berkeley and 
Jefferson Counties, in 1863, voted in favor of annexation 
to West Virginia and Virginia now denied the validity 
of the election. Johnson argued that the certificate of 
the loyal governor of Virginia in 1863 as to the election 
was conclusive, that the absence of voters in the Con- 
federate army could not invalidate the election, that 
Congress approved West Virginia's constitution which 
provided that additional territory might be admitted 
into the State with the consent of the legislature, and 
that Congressional approval to the annexation was 
given in 1866, within a reasonable period of the election. 

He then considered whether Virginia was a State 
competent to act. "The Union consists of States, equal 
in all respects in dignity, and possessing the same rights. 
The most important of these rights, the one upon which 
all its other rights and interests depend for protection 
and enjoyment, is the right of representation In Con- 
gress." If Virginia does not possess this, she is not a 

'^'That of Milwaukee and Rock River Canal on January 3. 
"1 On February 25. 

"* Vide remarks on Clinton Bridge on February 21. 

*" His argument was printed in pamphlet form p. 18. Stanton and Lee were 
with him. Curtis and Hunter opposed him. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I9I 

State, within the meaning of the Constitution. "My 
own opinion has been" that the Civil War, "in the sense 
of the Constitution," was an "insurrection and not a 
war, that the power conferred upon Congress to declare 
war referred exclusively to an external conflict." The 
Constitution could not have "intended to authorize 
Congress, through the war, or any other power, to con- 
quer a State, annihilate and govern it as a territory and 
its citizens as enemies. The framers of the Constitution 
looked to the happening of two events : one a war with 
a foreign nation, the other an insurrection among the 
people of one or more States. For the first, they in- 
vested Congress with the war power; for the second, 
with the power to call out the militia. The power to 
suppress insurrection was given to preserve and not to 
destroy the States." Congress, however, acted on the 
inference that, when started, the conflict is a war and 
the parties are enemies, though they must again become 
traitors and no longer enemies, at the end of the con- 
flict. The Supreme Court's decision as to the Constitu- 
tional character of the struggle is not binding upon 
Congress, of which each House "has the exclusive power 
to decide that a State is entitled to representation, or 
to state it more correctly, whether a community is a 
State for that purpose, within the meaning of the Con- 
stitution." As Congress does not recognize Virginia, 
it is not a State and cannot bring suit. 
In an eloquent peroration, Johnson said, 

It is not for me .... to censure or taunt Virginia's 
sons, now that the war is over, by unfriendly reference to their 
recent error. I know well how sincere and deep was the affec- 
tion they bore their State. Their mistake has been that in 
indulging it they forgot what they owed to the government 
of the Union. In the blindness of their State love, they did 



192 REVERDY JOHNSON 

not see it was their duty also to love the Union 

It is absolutely necessary that the powers delegated to the 
Government should be paramount to State powers. This neces- 
sity creates an allegiance, to which State allegiance must be 
subordinate. The South forgot or denied this. They acted 
upon a dififerent theory. They maintained that the allegiance 
of the citizen was first due to his State and the late war was 
the consequence. The result of that war, I hope, has convinced 
them that their theory is unsound, or at least that it can never 
be successfully vindicated in practise. Secession, therefore, as 
a State right is at an end.^®^ 

At the extra session of Congress, in July, Johnson 
was consistent v^ith his previous position. He success- 
fully moved that no person who gave aid and comfort 
to the rebellion after holding ofhce should vote,^^^ but 
that men who did not actually enter into the rebellion 
should not be excluded, being impelled by a letter from 
General Sickles who, wrote that there were many now loyal 
in the Carollnas, who saw the error of their ways and were 
anxious to help "reestablish the Union." With earnest 
opposition he met the proposition that there be any 
Increase In the number of persons to be disfranchised, 
or that persons who acted In any official capacity In 
the rebel States be excluded from voting. Without these 
men, there would have been anarchy and the judges, 
at least, stood In the situation In which Lord Hale stood, 
when appointed Judge by Cromwell. He defended the 
Attorney-General^^^ for expounding the Reconstruc- 
tion Act to the District of Columbia Commissioners, 
at the direction of the President. He did not believe 
that the Attorney-General wrote the veto message and 

i*^On JxUy II, he referred in a speech on the floor of the Senate to the 
overruling of this demurrer. 
'""July ID. 
"«On Jidy II. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 193 

took the opportunity to say that the law has put the 
civil under the military authority, and that the Supreme 
Court, in cases such as those of Texas and Virginia, 
had entertained writs of error and even heard cases in 
original jurisdiction, concerning the seceding States. 

In a later speech,*" he states that he did not regret 
voting for the original reconstruction acts even after 
the President's veto, but that no additional law is neces- 
sary. He is willing, however, to vote for a new bill, 
lest a still worse one come later. "It is high time that 
the Union should be restored, as it was before the at- 
tempt at its disruption," and should be again, "what it 
was, when it was originally established, a union of hearts, 
as well as a union of men." It is a "reproach to the 
wisdom of the Government" that there are ten States 
still out of Congress."^ 

Consistent to his theory, he*^^ held the President wrong 
and his message unnecessarily harmful to our credit in 
saying that we are responsible for the debts of the 
Southern States. Johnson instanced our relation with 
Spain, when Napoleon controlled it. When we recon- 
struct the States, their debts revive. They never had 
right to leave the Union and so their rebel debts were 
void. If we conquer the States, we have the right to 
pay for their government while under federal control, 
by taxing them. The States are for a time out of the 
Union, but Johnson rejoiced to hear Sumner say that 
a State can never die, as that statement agreed with 
Johnson's theory. 

»" On July 13. 

"* He objected to voting money for reconstruction expenses without the 
recommendation of the President, or Secretary of War. On July 18, he stated 
that the Secretary of the Navy was censurable, for not examining a man for 
admission to the Naval Academy. 

"'On July 15. 



194 REVERDY JOHNSON 

In an eloquent speech, on July 12, he defended Maxi- 
milian's course in Mexico, in that he treated guerrillas 
as criminals as we did and in that he died rather than 
flee, "because he loved honor more than life." There 
is no civil liberty in Mexico and we must not vindicate 
his executioners. Six days later, he protested against 
the idea that the United States are unable to keep their 
faith pledged with the Indians. White men on the 
frontier had treated Indians wrongfully without the 
interference of the government, which can and should 
enforce obedience there, as in the South. A place must 
be found for the harmless Indians within the broad 
limits of the United States.^^" 

It was at this Session, that Sumner, who had experi- 
enced many a conflict with Johnson, paid him the high 
compliment of saying that ''we all know" Johnson's 
"eminence at the bar of the Supreme Court. He has 
no superior." 

In October, Johnson published a tract'^^ entitled "The 
Dangerous Condition of the Country, the causes which 
have led to it and the duty of the people, by a Mary- 
lander." He felt that the country was in peril, for Its 
very existence depends upon the equality of States, yet 
that equality is at an end, for ten States are under 
military rule. The legislative department has brought 
the country into this predicament and has lost the 
potential wealth of these States to the Nation. The 

^"' On July 19, he defended the court of claims and protested against taking 
cases from it. In April, 1867, John Bigelow was in Washington and called 
upon Seward, who was anxious over the ratification of the treaty for the annex- 
ation of Alaska. Seward told Bigelow that Sumner had said that consideration 
of the treaty might have to be deferred because Reverdy Johnson opposed it, 
but that Johnson, "who is very untruthful," charged Simmer with being the 
cause of the delay. 

i"Pp. 24. 



REVERDY JOHNSON I 95 

war, "which grew out of the insurrectionary attempts 
of the people of the South," had been over more than 
two years previously. Congress voted in July, 1861, 
that its sole object was to "defend and maintain the 
supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union 
with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several 
States unimpaired." President Johnson tried to carry 
out this resolution. It is a glaring absurdity to construe 
the Congressional power to preserve the States into one 
to destroy them, yet the war is over and the Union 
continues suspended. The distinction between a domes- 
tic insurrection and a foreign war is dwelt upon. The 
insurrection became so formidable that, on grounds of 
humanity and to give the governm_ent the means to 
assist in its suppression, belligerent rights were given 
the insurgents. The Prize Cases did not mean that 
the South was a conquered province, but the perpetual 
relation of the States was only suspended by the war, 
although Congress says the Southern States are subject 
to its unlimited power. A Government can not make 
conquest of its own territory and Stevens is wrong in 
finding such power outside of the Constitution, as Con- 
gress possesses no power except those delegated thereby. 
Sumner's suffrage bill is not rightly under the guarantee 
clause, and suffrage should be as much a State matter 
as education, or the control of corporations. Congress 
already claims the right to charter companies to con- 
struct railroads in the States without their consent. 
There is no danger from the executive, but there is 
from Congress, whose radicalism tends to disorganize 
the country, make it less easy to pay the debt, and keep 
alive animosity. There is especial danger in the threat 
to suspend President Johnson, "which nothing but his 



196 REVERDY JOHNSON 

patriotic forbearance can prevent from terminating in 
another civil war." 

A month later, he published a second pamphlet."* 
In this publication, he deals more particularly with 
Maryland affairs. After discussing the meaning of the 
clause of guarantee, he turns to the charges that the 
State's government is not republican, because of the 
limitation of the suffrage and the unequal representa- 
tion of the counties. A Congressional Committee, sit- 
ting in secret and permitting no representative of Mary- 
land to be present, had inquired into the question and 
heard witnesses from the members of "that very small 
party in the State known as Radical." The Constitu- 
tion of 1864, however, was "declared by competent 
authority to have been legally adopted" and excluded 
white men from the franchise "by restrictions, in their 
nature unjust and punitive," yet there was no protest 
at Washington. A large majority of all the males in 
Maryland, white and black, support the government 
and the Democratic candidate for governor had been 
elected by a majority twice as great as that given the 
Constitution of 1867.^^^ Congress had no right to make 
a Constitution for such a State as Maryland. The 
Fourteenth Amendment, whose object was to define 
citizenship, gives no power to regulate the elective fran- 
chise. The President is threatened with impeachment, 
yet "any alleged violation of supposed duty, not made 
a crime by Statute, any alleged violation of party fealty, 
any use of his official patronage which politicians may 
find fault with, or which may have proved injurious 
to the public interest, are not causes of impeachment." 
One must remember that, during an impeachment trial, 

"*Also anonymous "A Further Consideration, etc., pp. 23. 
'*'44, 742 votes for Bowie, 24, 124 for the Constitution. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 97 

the President holds office. The dominant party does 
not observe the Constitution. The address of the white 
citizens of South Carolina, protesting against reconstruc- 
tion, causes "sympathy and pain. They should have 
peace and, throughout the land, the white men should 
determine to have the Constitution respected and to 
continue the governments, State and National, exclu- 
sively in the hands of men of their own race." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Impeachment Session (1867-68). 

In this session and in the trial of President Johnson, 
Reverdy Johnson took a most important part. He was 
one of the committee on the rules of the Court. To 
him largely was it due that the President was acquitted. 
He opposed in vain Wade's sitting in the Court. He 
filed an opinion, stating that the President was not 
guilty, which opinion was forceful and conclusive. He 
influenced several senators, who had been uncertain 
what course to pursue, and induced them to rely on 
President Johnson's integrity for the enforcement of 
the reconstruction acts. During the early days of the 
Session, we find him^ spending the evening with General 
Sherman, devising some adjustment of the complica- 
tions in the War Department, as a result of which con- 
ference both he and Sherman urged the President to 
appoint General Jacob D. Cox as Secretary. ^ As the 
questions at issue were grave and the report of the 
Committee on Military Affairs was an able one, he wished 
it printed with the President's message.' 

On February 24, the House of Representatives voted 
to impeach the President for "high crimes and mis- 
demeanors" and, on March 5, eleven articles of impeach- 
ment were presented by the House to the Senate. That 
body was ready to receive them. Johnson had been 
appointed on February 25 as one of a committee of 
seven,* to which were referred the resolutions of the 

* On January ii. De Witt's Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 322. 

* Welles Diary III, 260-261. 
' On January 28. 

* Howard, Trumbull, Conkling, Edmimds, Morton, and Poraeroy were the 
others. 

19S 



REVERDY JOHNSON 1 99 

House, passed on the preceding day. In the discussion 
of the rules of the Court^ Johnson took active part. 
He thought the Southern States should be restored, 
but had bowed to the majority and, holding that the 
authority to try impeachment was the same as that to 
pass laws, maintained that a quorum of the Court was 
a "majority of those whom the Senate have decided to 
have been elected," pointing out that any other theory 
would invalidate all acts passed since April, 1865, al- 
though the Courts had sustained them. He suggested 
taking up the proposed rules seriatim, as was done, and 
insisted that as a Court, the Senate should adhere to 
precedents. He opposed, both in the committee and 
in the Senate, a rule to require the aid of any officer 
military or civil, to enforce the Court's decree, as the 
judgment could only be removal from office and ina- 
bility to hold office and no process was needed to enforce 
such judgment. The mode of enforcing the judgment 
was a matter of legislation and the Senate alone had 
no legislative power. If the President were convicted 
and refused to leave the office, it would be for his suc- 
cessor to enforce the removal, but Johnson had confi- 
dence, although he had not conferred with the Presi- 
dent, that he would obey the judgment of the Court. 
He also opposed any limitation of discussion of any pre- 
liminary points which might be made, such as amotion 
to quash the indictment because it contained no aver- 
ment of criminal intent, as he was particularly anxious 
to preserve for the Senate "without suspicion, its honor, 
its justice, its impartiality." 

On March 5, the first day of the trial, Johnson spoke 
in opposition to Senator Benjamin F. Wade's sitting in 
the case, as he was president pro tempore of the Senate 

'On February 29 and March 2 



200 REVERDY JOHNSON 

and would succeed to the Presidency, if the accusation 
should be successful, Johnson was careful to make his 
protest, which was overruled, on purely legal ground, 
having no personal objections. He cited the precedents 
brought forward by Sumner and others of the majority 
in the Stockton case,^ and insisted that it was improper 
to place any man in a position, where he would be a 
judge in his own case, no matter what was the character 
of his interest. In sitting on the impeachment, he was 
ever emphatic in reminding his fellow members that 
they acted as a court and the court must be a consti- 
tutional one. He also insisted' that, in a case where 
the issues are so "fearful," order must be preserved in 
the galleries and, that there be no suggestion of mob 
violence, he suggested that admission be by ticket.' 

At the close of the trial, he gave an opinion which 
Cox' called "unanswerable to the unprejudiced reader" 
and which left the prosecution no constitutional ground 
to stand upon. In this opinion^" he took the position 
that impeachment lay only for acts for which one would 
be liable to a criminal prosecution and that it did not 
lie for speeches, which were protected under the amend- 
ment protecting freedom of speech. The tenure of office 

* 3 Impeachment of Johnson, 68. 
^ In the Senate on March lo. 

* Col. W. H. Emory testified in the trial that he tmderstood that other 
officers consulted Reverdy Johnson. On April 14, Johnson advocated printing 
the proceedings of the trial separately. On April 13, he brought up the ques- 
tion of Sherman's conversation with the President as to his purpose to remove 
Stanton on January 27, 1868. i Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, pp. 236, 
517. On March 17, Col. W. G. Moore wrote (19 Am. Hist Rev., Oct., 1913, 
p. 1 26) "During a visit to the Capitol today, Senator Reverdy Johnson expressed 
anxiety" that the "President should do something to help himself" and appeared 
to entertain the opinion that a change should be made in the State and Treasury 
Departments. 

'Three Decades of the Federal Legislation, 361. 
^* 3 Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 50 & ff . 



REVERDY JOHNSON 201 

act did not take away the right to remove Stanton, as 
he came under the clause forbidding such removal for 
the term of the President by whom he was appointed 
and for one month thereafter, and so Stanton's term 
expired a month after Lincoln's death. It would be 
most unwise to force on a President a cabinet of men 
in whom he had no confidence and the tenure of office 
bill was framed with the intention of allowing him to 
change them. Precedent established the right to remove 
without the Senate's consent and the act of 1795, allow- 
ing the President to appoint a secretary of war ad 
interim, had never been repealed, expressly or by impli- 
cation. In any case difTerences of opinion as to the 
construction or constitutionality of the tenure of office 
act may honestly be maintained and there is no crimi- 
nality in holding either view. If there were a constitu- 
tional power to remove, the President is bound by his 
official oath to maintain that power. 

The doctrine that the President is forced to execute any 
statute that Congress may pass according to the forms of law 
upon subjects, not only not within their delegated powers, 
but expressly denied to them, is to compel him to abandon his 
office and submit all its functions to the unlimited control of 
Congress and thus defeat the very object of its creation. Such 
a doctrine has no support in the Constitution and would in 
the end be its destruction. 

He must execute the Constitution and obey only acts 
passed in pursuance thereof, or break his "sworn obli- 
gation to support the Constitution. Otherwise the effect 
of the Constitution would depend on Congress," which 
would have practically all powers of government, "a 
result clearly destructive of liberty." The fact that the 
President wished to have the case referred to the Supreme 
Court showed that his intent was good. The resolution 



202 REVERDY JOHNSON 

of February 6, by which the Senate declared Stanton's 
removal in the preceding August to have been contrary 
to the Constitution and law, was passed in the Senate's 
legislative capacity and without much deliberation and 
did not preclude any Senator from changing his mind 
in a judicial proceeding, where he must, under oath, 
decide as to the law and justice, nor may he consider 
what will be the political result of failure to convict, 
even if it be "civil commotion and bloodshed." 

Not only did he so argue in public but, when some 
doubtful senators told Grimes of Iowa that they feared 
lest Andrew Johnson, if acquitted, would try high- 
handedly to stop Congressional reconstruction, Reverdy 
Johnson brought about a casual meeting at his house 
of the President and Grimes, without the foreknowledge 
of either, at which meeting the President was led to 
express sentiments, proving that there was no such 
danger. Grimes conveyed these sentiments to the wav- 
erers with the desired result. ^^ On May i6, the vote 
was taken and the President was acquitted on the two 
leading articles by one vote, as the prosecution lacked 
one vote of obtaining the two-thirds of the Senate neces- 
sary to convict. Senator Grimes was ill at the time 
and it was uncertain that he would be present. At the 
most dramatic moment, just before the vote was taken, 
Reverdy Johnson rose and said of Grimes: 

The Senator is here. I have sent for him. He is down 
stairs. He will be in the chamber in a moment. He is here.'* 

After the trial was over, Johnson was prompt as ever 
to defend his friends. A Committee of the House of 
Representatives summoned Senator Henderson to appear 

" DeWitt Impeachment of Andrew Johnson 546, Cox, Three Decades, 592. 
'* DeWitt Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 551. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 203 

before it, as he was accused of having been corruptly 
influenced in his vote, and Johnson defended him,'' 
taking the position also that no Senator should appear 
before the House. He added: " I am the oldest member 
of the body, I believe, if not in point of service, in point 
of age. Its honor is as dear to me as the government 
itself, and I believe there is no corrupt Senator." So 
too when a false newspaper report said that Henderson, 
Johnson, Sprague, and Chief Justice Chase had dined 
together during the trial and thus discussed the forma- 
tion of a new party, Johnson came to the jurist's defence 
and declared that "such slanderers as the reporter 
who concocted the story should never be allowed to 
polute this chamber by their presence." 

As to the opinions of the Chief Justice^* they were not better 
known to me than they are to everybody else. What his 
opinions were w4th reference to the impeachment, if he had 
any decided opinions, and what were the reasons which led 
him to adopt such opinions are unknown to me. I had my 
own. I had no desire to consult with him. 

Hereafter, "the public judgment will be pronounced, at 
least to the extent of saying" that those who voted to 
acquit the President, 

did what they did from conscientious conviction, that what 
they did was the result of their calm and deliberate consider- 
ation of the law and the evidence, and that they were bold 
enough, defiant enough of all efforts to control them in the 

'^ On May 21. 

" On June i, he explained, however, that he voted by mistake for a resolu- 
tion thanking the Chief Justice for the manner in which he discharged the pre- 
siding office, as he thought the resolution was a vote of thanks to the Sec- 
retary of the Treasur>'. He thought that the resolution which had been passed 
was calculated to bring the judiciary into political contests. 



204 REVERDY JOHNSON 

discharge of a judicial duty, finally to decide as they did 
decide.'^ 

John A. J. Creswell, a radical Union man, by guber- 
natorial appointment, had replaced Hicks as Johnson's 
colleague. To succeed Creswell, the Maryland legisla- 
ture elected Philip Francis Thomas, a Democrat, in the 
spring of 1867, as we have seen. After long argument, 
in which Johnson took an active part, Thomas was not 
allowed to take the oath of office. On December 18, 
Johnson moved his admission. The motion was referred 
to the Judiciary Committee, which took testimony and 
reported on January 6. Johnson then addressed the 
Senate, urging that Thomas be admitted. He had been 
Secretary of the Treasury in the closing days of Bu- 
chanan's administration and had been accused of sym- 
pathy with secession then and with bad financial man- 
agement. Johnson denied these charges and claimed 
that the New York bankers had asked Thomas's resig- 
nation, merely because he was a Southern man. The 
condition of affairs in Maryland, at the time of Thomas's 
election, was also alleged to be such that he should not 
be seated, but the most important accusation was one 
not brought forward previously, namely that his son 
had been in the Confederate service and that the father 
had given him one hundred dollars ($100), when he left 
home to enlist at the age of eighteen in 1863. Johnson 
cited the instance of a son of Governor Bradford, who was 
also in the Confederate service and asserted that Thomas 
did not give the son money to aid the insurrection and 
never wrote him, after he left home. The boy would 
go, money or no. The father gave money to prevent 

'^He assailed an officer of the Senate for editing a paper which bitterly 
attacked the minority. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 205 

calamity befalling the son afterwards. The unreflect- 
ing youth of Maryland were easily induced to go South 
and, through their erroneous belief in slavery, to resist 
what they believed to be the unconstitutional proceed- 
ings of the Union. Senator Edmunds said that he felt 
he must vote against Thomas, since, previous to his 
son's enlistment, he "was in full sympathy with the 
enemies of his country." Howard also opposed admit- 
ting him, but Howe, while admitting the force of the 
charge said that Maryland, as a State, had a right to 
be represented by Senators of her choice and that Thomas 
should be permitted to take the oath. After admission, 
the Senator might be expelled; but the Senate is judge 
of the constitutional qualifications only of those elected 
to its membership and may not add to these qualifica- 
tions. Because men do not receive the penalties, which 
the law denounces against treason, "it does not become 
the Senate to sit and make faces at them." A judge 
would not exclude testimony, by refusing to allow a 
witness to swear, lest, if he take the oath, he commit 
perjury. 

Conkling doubted the possibility of exclusion for past 
treason and Howe replied that, in any case, the penalty 
might follow present perjury, but that there were no 
limits to the power to expel. He did not think Thomas 
more dangerous than any other Democrat from Mary- 
land and, although Howe did not like to trust the wel- 
fare of the country to any Democrat, the man repre- 
sented the opinion of Maryland and the Senate may not 
disfranchise a State. 

Trumbull next took part in the debate, opposing 
Howe's position. A man can not be both a citizen and 
an enemy and, as Thomas had shown himself to be 
the latter, his case is similar to a man convicted of bribery. 



206 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Howe controverted this, for the briber is disqualified, 
because of sentence of court; but the Senate had no 
jurisdiction to try crime and the statutes do not define 
disloyalty. Doolittle and Trumbull maintained that 
Congress might disqualify, by imposing punishment for 
crimes generally, and Edmunds added that Thomas 
should not be given a vote on the question of his own 
expulsion. At first, Trumbull had favored seating 
Thomas and then examining the case, but believed it 
competent for the Senate to examine into the case first, 
as it was a continuous body. The object of the oath is to 
protect the country against dislo^^al men holding office. 
Stewart opposed Thomas, in the last speech of the day, 
and said the Fourteenth Amendment covered the case 
and gave^^ the Senate authority, as Thomas had taken 
the oath to support the government and later, by help- 
ing his son, was accessory before the fact to aiding 
rebels. The "trouble is that we are not in the habit of 
regarding rebellion as a crime." 

The subject did not again receive discussion until 
January 20, when Hendricks favored Thomas, who was 
a "constitutional Union man, dissenting from the politi- 
cal policy of the administration at that time, but con- 
curring in the necessity of the maintenance of the Union 
through the power of the general government." His 
assistance of his son had no criminal design, but might 
be compared to helping a wounded Confederate, or pay- 
ing a debt to a man going South. Frelinghuysen spoke 
on the same side. The question is judicial, not politi- 
cal, and Thomas was "guilty of a grave mistake," but 
was not disloyal. 

The debate continued on the next day. Howard im- 
pugned Thomas's conduct in 1861, and his mild dis- 

**Howe said he did not know whether the amendment had been adopted. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 20/ 

suasion of his son, merely saying Maryland had not gone 
out of the Union, when he should have had the youth 
arrested by the provost marshal. Morton of Indiana 
followed in a strong speech opposing Thomas. 

Every deliberative body has the right to protect itself from 
the presence of disloyal men, or of great criminals. Thomas's 
disloyalty is shown by his speech, when notified of his sena- 
torial election, and by the fact that his son testified that he 
was uncertain as to his father's position in 1861. Thomas's 
letter resigning the Treasury portfolio showed him to be "one 

of the original conspirators of this rebellion He 

expected his own State to go into it. It was known at that 
time that there was not a more disloyal city in the Union than 
the City of Baltimore. If it had not been for the subsequent 
course of events, by which Maryland was held for the time in 
the Union by the force of arms, I have no doubt Maryland 
would have passed an ordinance of secession. We, gentlemen, 
talk about the loyalty of Maryland. Allow me to say that 
it was a constrained loyalty. 

Williams followed, speaking in behalf of Thomas and 
urging the Senate to accept any man with the constitu- 
tional qualifications, sent by a legislature. It is dan- 
gerous to make admission to the Senate a political ques- 
tion, and investigation and punishment for perjury, if nec- 
essary, may properly follow taking the oath. Rebellion 
is not a private crime and, although Thomas may have 
sympathized with the rebels, he did not give them aid 
and comfort. It was not likely that Maryland would 
elect a better Democrat and a loyal State should not 
be denied the right to representation. Morrill, oppos- 
ing Thomas's admission, held it disloyal to resign the 
Treasury at the crisis and the gift to his son was mis- 
prision of treason. If Thomas is admitted, where shall 
the Senate stop? A. H. Stephens had already applied 



208 REVERDY JOHNSON 

for admission. Stewart closed the day's debate, sum- 
ming up the objections of previous speakers, develop- 
ing the Congressional plan of reconstruction, blaming 
Thomas for not keeping his son from going South, and 
claiming that there was no evidence that Thomas was 
willing to protect every Union man and enforce the 
civil rights bill in Maryland. 

The debate continued on January 22, and several 
other Senators took part. Doolittle reminded the Sen- 
ators that they acted in a judicial capacity and should 
not cite extreme cases, such as that of Jefferson Davis. 
The only question is as to a person doing acts "suscep- 
tible of a double construction." If a man would take 
the oath, he should have his seat. The fact that Thomas 
had a wrong opinion of the power of government in 1861 
did not show disloyalty, for many loyal men, such as 
Greeley, had it. Drake asserted that the intent of the 
oath was to search the innermost recesses of a rebel con- 
science. The Senators must not be made accessories 
before the fact to perjury nor let Thomas take the oath, 
if they were satisfied that he would perjure himself in 
doing so. If a small rebel is admitted, a big one can 
not be kept out. 

On the contrary, Tipton felt that none of these charges 
were sufficient to keep Thomas out and that he had a 
"right to retain his States' rights heresies at home." 
Buckalew felt that the charge of disloyalty in 1861 was 
absurd. Thomas had some degree of sympathy with 
the rebels, but settled down on his farm and did no 
wrong. The speech in 1867 is not important. If you 
concede everything in regard to the gift to his son, still 
the Senate is not competent to try questions of criminal 
law. If Thomas's intent was benevolent, there was no 
crime. In point of law, there was no power to turn 



REVERDY JOHNSON 2O9 

away a man with regular credentials, willing to take the 
oath, except in case of a traitor, excluded under the 
power of preserving public safety in time of public dan- 
ger, which was not now the case. Fessenden announced 
that he should vote for Thomas, as there was no extreme 
need of exercising any extraconstitutional power. A 
refusal to permit Thomas to take the oath is a mere 
arbitrary decision, making a precedent which is apt to 
degenerate into a party question. The speech of 1867 
and the resignation in 1861 were not important. Thomas 
was following the existing law, when, as Secretary of the 
Treasury, he refused to permit tariff duties to be col- 
lected on shipboard. He doubtless loved his son better 
than his country, and was willing to let him go, but did 
not give aid and comfort to the South. The Senate 
must not exclude all Democrats. Johnson closed the 
debate, on January 23, urging haste in settling the 
matter. He took advantage of the opportunity to de- 
fend the judges of the Supreme Court and to say that 
he did not believe that five of them had said they 
believed the reconstruction measures to be unconstitu- 
tional.^^ 

On February 7, Johnson announced that he proposed 
soon to call up the case of his colleague, inasmuch as the 
legislature of Maryland was in session and, if Thomas 
were ousted, could at once elect another Senator. Six 
days later, the debate was resumed, upon a motion of 
Sumner that Thomas was guilty of misprision of treason 
for his conduct in reference to his minor son. Loyalty 
was a qualification for admission to the Senate under 
the Fourteenth Amendment. Trumbull responded that, 
if Thomas is now loyal, he should be admitted. He 

" "I am so situated," he added, "that I read the papers very seldom and 
indeed I am hardlv able to read them at all." 



2IO REVERDY JOHNSON 

defended Thomas's administration of the Treasury, 
though it had not the confidence of moneyed men and 
was unpatriotic, and he called attention to the facts that 
Thomas advised his son and other young men not to 
enter the rebel army and that the money given the son 
was all expended before the rebel lines were reached. 
As a juror, he would not find Thomas guilty. Letters 
expressing rebellious sentiments in 1861 had been written 
by men, like Colonel Stokes of Tennessee, who had 
continued loyal throughout the war and was now a 
Congressman. Fessenden followed in Thomas's behalf 
and remarked that Sumner and Trumbull had sat in 
the Senate and heard men say they were going home to 
secede, but had not informed on them, while Brecken- 
ridge even sat there, when the battle of Bull Run was 
fought. Thomas's duty should have led him to do more 
than he did, but his act did not make him a traitor. 
Edmunds spoke in opposition to Thomas and insisted 
that the war began before January il, 1861, when 
Thomas resigned. In a long and eloquent speech, he 
claimed that Thomas had associated with rebels and 
had stopped speaking to Union men, while he had 
merely dissuaded his son from making war on Maryland, 
because it had not gone out of the Union. Yates and 
Sherman also spoke against Thomas, the latter speaker 
laying stress on Thomas's resignation of the Treasury 
Secretaryship two days after the "Star of the West 
had been fired upon, because he did not agree with 
Buchanan as to measures to be taken in reference to 
conditions in South Carolina." The resignation was 
an act of assistance to the rebels and Thomas had never 
expressed regret for it. He had applied to vote in 
Maryland, but had refused to take the prescribed oath, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 211 

both before and after the adoption of the Constitution 
of 1864, and would have been glad to go out of his State. 
Corbett closed the day's debate, with a declaration 
that Thomas was one of the original conspirators against 
the government and with a comparison of him to John- 
son, a loyal Senator, who "stood forth like a giant in 
1 86 1 to maintain the rights of the Union." On the 
fourteenth Thomas was defended by Tipton and Buck- 
alew, the latter of whom called attention to the fact 
that, when Thomas found his son tarried in Washington 
for two months, he induced his wife to write urging the 
youth to come home. Speeches in opposition to Thomas 
were made by Yates, Morton, Stewart, Fowler, Drake 
and Howard, the last of whom said that, when the 
Subtreasury funds were seized at Charleston on January 
8, 1 861, Thomas uttered no rebuke and made no at- 
tempt to defend the treasury. The debate then went 
over to the eighteenth, when it was taken up by Trum- 
bull, who thought that the Judiciary Committee should 
have expressed an opinion in the matter, instead of 
merely reporting the evidence and saying that there 
was nothing to keep out Thomas except his conduct 
in reference to his son. Thomas was too loyal to agree 
with Buchanan and the distrust of Thomas felt by the 
New York capitalists was the real cause of his resig- 
nation. We fed rebel prisoners and Thomas did no 
more for his son. Ferry made a speech in opposition. 
Johnson then spoke in Thomas's behalf, and endeavored 
to prove Maryland's loyalty.^^ On the question of ad- 

** On January 31, he wrote Governor Bradford, asking for facts for a sp>eech 
to prove Maryland's loyalty and saying that the failure to reelect Johnson to 
the Senate, had, in the estimation of Congressmen of both parties, done the 
legislature of Maryland harm. 



212 REVERDY JOHNSON 

mitting Thomas, the Constitution made each Senator a 
judge. The legislative branch of the government de- 
pends for its existence on the States, whose legislatures 
have right of choice of Senators, subject to the constitu- 
tional restrictions. If Thomas is excluded, it is on 
ground of implied power to add qualifications for admis- 
sion. The authority to impose an oath is questionable, 
the right to go back of that oath is also questionable, 
and there is no need to do so here, for Thomas is a man 
of honor and a gentleman, so that he may be trusted to 
take the oath. If Thomas is guilty of misprision of 
treason, the son was guilty of treason, but an intent 
to join those who levy war against us is not treason. 
Thomas had been commissioner of patents, until he was 
called to the Treasury on December 12, i860, and he 
found that Buchanan, "by a policy which I forbear to 
characterize as I think it should be characterized, be- 
cause he is an old man and has rendered service to the 
country, by a policy of imbecility and inactivity, had 
permitted the authorities of the State of South Carolina 
to encircle Sumter with a range of forts." If Thomas 
had been a secessionist, he would have remained in 
office to embarrass the administration. Thomas showed 
loyalty, by removal of the revenue cutter officer who 
had turned over his vessel to the South Carolinians. 
Many men still hoped for peace at that time and the 
Peace Convention of the early months of 1861 was, for 
the most part, animated with the purpose to obviate 
war, without seriously affecting the character of the 
government. Even Lincoln underestimated the Con- 
federate strength and called for 75,000 instead of for 
400,000 men. Many Marylanders, "greatly and lament- 
ably in error," went into the rebel army from a con- 
viction that the South had a just cause. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 213 

In the struggle of arms, the men of Maryland were true to 
their lineage in either army, their daring and impetuous cour- 
age was strikingly exhibited. Hundreds and thousands of them 
now sleep upon the fields which were the scenes of their valor. 
In this, I feel, as I hope, an honest and blameless pride. I 
can point to them, as demonstrating that the sons of Maryland 
have not degenerated, that they are the worthy descendants of 
ancestors, who, in the v/ar of the Revolution, when under the 
command of Williams, Smallwood, or Howard, never turned 
their back to the foe and rarely ever met him but to conquer 
and who, in 1781, at the battle of Cowpens, led on by Howard, 
by a brilliant charge, threw the enemy into confusion and, 
snatching victory from defeat, changed the fortunes of the 
day and achieved historic and deathless fame for the Maryland 
line and its gallant leader. 

On the nineteenth, the debate closed. Howard showed 
that Thomas was intimate with such secessionists as 
Floyd, Cobb and Thompson, and engaged in discussion 
with Trumbull over a statement that the order to reen- 
force Sumter caused Thomas to resign. Buckalew spoke 
in behalf of Maryland and then Johnson accused Howard 
of vituperation In saying that Thomas would perjure 
himself and suborn his son In order to take his seat. 
Thomas is a "frank and an able man, an honest and an 
intelligent man and, notwithstanding all that has been 
said of him, a patriot. In the true sense of that term, as 
pure and perfect as the honorable Senator for Michigan." 
Thomas was an honest man who left the Treasury as 
poor as when he entered the office, while his loyalty 
was shown, by refusing to pay a claim which Floyd 
advocated, and by transferring $350,000 from St. Louis 
to New York, while he transferred not a dollar to the 
South. War was not flagrant In January, 1861. As 
late as the end of February, loyal men thought com- 
promise was possible. The result was not certain. 



214 REVERDY JOHNSON 

We trembled, lest England or France should Interfere 
and the Union be dissolved. Queen Victoria probably 
prevented British interference. "I believed and was 
thought oversanguine that, in the end, all would come 
right, but when and after what loss, I knew not." Even 
Stephen A. Douglas, Union man as he was, on March 
15, 1 86 1, offered a resolution in the Senate to have the 
Secretary of War inquire, if it were better to retain the 
Southern forts. 

Conkling now moved that Thomas be refused admis- 
sion, as he can not with truth take the oath of office, 
and Drake moved that Thomas, having voluntarily given 
aid to persons in armed hostility, is not entitled to be 
a Senator. Howe disliked Thomas, but felt that the 
parties to the controversy were Maryland and the United 
States and that Maryland had the right to elect and 
send here any man who had the constitutional qualifi- 
cations. The Constitution does not insist that a man 
have been loyal in the past, but that he swear to be 
loyal in the future. The power to expel is to be dis- 
tinguished from that to admit and gives Congress the 
needed safeguard. Davis agreed to this position; but 
Conness, though a Democrat, thought slavery and war 
rose above all other questions and that the Senate should 
be preserved from "living rebels." "At the beginning 
of the war, the Devil had a mortgage on nearly all 
Maryland which, during the war, he could not foreclose, 
but has now done so." In a final speech, Johnson cited 
the acceptances of the resignations of Robert E. Lee 
and Franklin Buchanan by the Secretaries of War and 
Navy in 1861, which acceptances were mistaken, as 
Johnson thought, who "was here at the time and sensi- 
bly alive to the dangers." He asked in vain, that by- 



REVERDY JOHNSON 215 

gones be permitted to be bygones. Thomas was refused 
admission by the vote of 21 to 28.^^ 

The Maryland legislature soon elected Harrison W. 
Vickers of Kent County to fill the vacant senatorial 
seat and Johnson presented his credentials on March 9. 
Sumner moved to refer them to the Judiciary Committee, 
to see if Maryland had a republican form of govern- 
ment, since fourteen counties, with one-fourth of the 
white population, elect fourteen of the twenty-four Sen- 
ators; but he withdrew the resolution and Vickers was 
sworn in. 2° 

Together with the impeachment proceedings and the 
defence of Thomas, the questions arising out of the 
reconstruction of the Southern States occupied John- 
son's attention. On December 5, he opposed the equal 
rights bill for the District of Columbia. He was willing 
to give the negroes every privilege necessary to their 

^^ In the discussion with Cameron, the latter misunderstood Johnson to 
speak of Joseph E. Johnston's resignation and said Johnson told him that he 
would not act against the government. Cameron also said that he had arrested 
the legislature of Maryland to prevent them from taking the State out. John- 
son responded that the Maryland legislature could not have done any harm, 
but that Lee did. Cameron then told a hearsay tale of Lee's deserting the 
army under false pretences, which Johnson doubted, as not in keeping with 
Lee's honorable character, and reiterated his old position that Buchanan's 
capital error was in confounding war against a State with the duty of enforc- 
ing, as against citizens, obedience to the Constitution. On February 21, when 
Harvey, the Minister to Portugal, was blamed for his alleged statement that in 
1 86 1 Lincoln had authorized him to say that Sumter would not be reenforced, 
Johnson defended him and said that Harvey acted, at the time, at the request 
of Seward, who was then, in some particulars, conducting the War and Navy 
Departments. Cameron said that this was a reflection upon him and Johnson 
responded that he doubted not that Cameron did his duty, but insisted that 
Seward did things which were properly in the sphere of the War Department. 

^" Conness opposed Sumner and Nye supported him, saying that Swann's 
appointment of registers of voters was a fraud on the Constitution of 1864, 
and that R. B. Carmichael's letter to Governor Bowie proved that Swann's 
act was the result of a corrupt bargain. 



2l6 REVERDY JOHNSON 

protection, but he did not feel that allowance of suffrage 
to them was politic or demanded by any ground of 
principle. 

That right, according to my understanding of it, is the creature 
of positive law, not one of the inalienable rights with which 
we are endowed, and may or may not exist in any particular 
community, as that community may think is advantageous or 
not advantageous to the interests of the whole. 

He objected, seriously, to permitting black men to 
serve as jurors, especially in criminal cases, since for 
the most part they had just emerged from slavery. 
The number of negroes in Washington may even lead 
to the election of judges of that race, which would be 
detrimental to the rest of the people. ^^ Yet, when the 
bill was passed and was not returned within ten days 
by the President, Johnson held it became law, though 
Congress was not in session at the time, as there had 
been no close of the session, but only a recess for the 
Christmas holidays. ^^ Drake had been much offended 
at the President's message and offered a resolution of 
censure. He had also printed in the newspapers an 
open letter to Reverdy Johnson, saying that the supreme 
authority over the people everywhere, in relation to 
all things, is in the government of the United States 
and, especially, in its legislative departments, and that 
there are no rights which can be called, in any proper 
sense, sovereign in any of the States of the Union. 
Johnson defended the President's message and answered 
Drake's "constitutional heresies" in an able historical 

^^ Recent elections showed that Sumner's policy was not altogether palatable 
to the people. 

^ Vide speech on January 7 and 24. On March 24, he said, if the body be 
not in actual session, the bill may be returned to one of its officers. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 217 

speech. 2* When the Confederation, creating a league, 
had been adopted by free and independent States, they 
soon found the need of a "government vested with 
powers adequate to its own preservation, a govern- 
ment, therefore, authorized to enforce those powers, not 
through the instrumentality of other governments, but, 
directly, upon the citizens individually, and above all 
having the authority absolutely necessary to maintain 
the interests of all against the nations elsewhere and to 
prevent conflicts among the States themselves," but 
not to extinguish the States. Only such powers were 
transferred to the United States as were "necessary 
and adequate to maintain our independence against the 
world and preserve peace among ourselves." Curiously 
enough, Virginia is "now, in the estimation of some, 
supposed to be out of the Union by means of a war waged 
for the purpose of preserving the Union unbroken." 
The Supreme Court, for example in the McCulloh case, 
had held the view of State sovereignty and Drake him- 
self, sitting in the Convention which framed the Missouri 
Constitution, though he oposed exacting an oath of 
loyalty from the clergy, did not object to it on the ground 
that Missouri had no sovereign power. The executive 
power is not detailed in the Constitution and the Presi- 
dent also has veto, treaty making, and nominating 
powers, his sole responsibility being by impeachm.ent. 
He was not bound to approve bills for reconstruction, and 
was right to state his opinion of those laws, but he had 
enforced them faithfully. Drake would have done bet- 
ter to answer the message. Despite their difference in 
views, "the relations between the honorable member 
and myself are such and, I am glad to say, they are 
equally friendly with every member of the body, that 

^' On December 1 2. 



2l8 REVERDY JOHNSON 

he will never receive at my hands anything but what 
will be most cheerfully rendered, the greatest courtesy." 

The President is not subordinate to the legislature. 
Jackson, who wrote the nullification message, also wrote 
the bank messages, which Johnson analyzed at length. 
President Johnson's position is stronger, for no court 
has said that the reconstruction laws are constitutional, 
those laws whose only warrant is that the Southern 
States have no existence and their citizens possess no 
individual rights, but "are bound to submit to the abso- 
lute and uncontrolled will of the legislative depart- 
ment." Clay had once carried a resolution of censure 
against Jackson and, although "I can never men- 
tion him, but with reverence and admiration. He was 
impulsive and strong willed, of masculine understanding 
and of the purest patriotism," yet he "could bear no 
brother near the throne. Let the Senate beware of a 
popular uprising against its policy and, instead of war- 
ring with the President, let It restore peace, revise 
taxation, maintain unbroken plighted faith and preserve 
unsullied the honor of the nation." 

When the supplementary reconstruction bill was under 
discussion, on January 27, Johnson delivered a long and 
able address, attempting to show that the doctrines 
advanced in the bill were "unwarranted by the Consti- 
tution, unsound and mischievous." He defended, with 
great erudition, the power of the Supreme Court to 
declare laws void and maintained that, without this 
power, the government would not have had Its great 
success, nor its prosperity. The object of the Conven- 
tion, which formed the Constitution, was to preserve 
republican liberty by preserving a republican form of 
government, not to guard against the abuses of those 
who might be called upon to administer a government 



REVERDY JOHNSON 219 

of that form." Morton was wrong in saying that the 
word "loyal" may be interpolated in the guarantee of 
republican government of the States. When the Con- 
stitution was adopted, in most of the States there was 
slavery and in none was there universal suffrage. None 
then supposed that, in that guarantee, lurked a pro- 
vision which might be used by Congress, for the pur- 
pose of taking away from the States authority to regu- 
late suffrage. The Federalist shows that the clause 
gave Congress no power to create a government for a 
State, "but merely to defend the States." What is 
disloyalty? Is it to "entertain abstract opinions upon 
the meaning of the Constitution, to have believed in 
the doctrine of secession in the past, or to believe in 
it now," to disagree with Congress? "No, it may be 
an error of opinion, no more," and Reverdy Johnson had 
differed with each department of government. 

In the exercise of my own honest judgment and having at 
heart the prosperity and safety of my country, I did, from the 
commencement of the rebellion and before, denounce it, as 
resting upon a doctrine finding no support in the Constitution 
of our country, but, on the contrary, at war with many of its 
express provisions. I had, however, the charity to believe, 
and I believe now, that the opposite doctrine to my own was 
maintained with equal sincerity by hundreds and thousands 
of citizens to be found in every State in the Union 

When Jefferson wrote the Kentucky resolves of 1799, 
he was wrong, but not disloyal. The men, who govern 
Maryland now, do so rightfully, as far as the laws are 
concerned. "That they erred in the past in sympathiz- 
ing with the South, nobody is more satisfied than I 
am," and they know now that secession would have 
ruined Maryland, which would have been the battle- 
ground of the war. This war was insane, as well as 



220 REVERDY JOHNSON 

unconstitutional in its origin, and, as Johnson predicted 
from the beginning, it was fatal to slavery, "the very 
institution which its authors thought to preserve by 
it." The fact that slavery is gone is "compensation 
almost entire for all that has occurred, terrible though 
the losses were." The doctrine of secession is also dead 
and prosperity may now be looked for. We must re- 
member the clauses as to ex post facto laws, treason and 
jury trials, as well as the guarantee clause. The bill pro- 
posed to place ten States under the dominion of the 
military forces and make the general-in-chief a despot. 
"I would not entrust George Washington himself with 
such power." From the first, Johnson believed that 
the Southern States never ceased to exist as States, and 
repudiated, as absurd, the doctrine that the United 
States, exercising its power of self-preservation, could 
work the destruction of a State. He appealed to the 
decision of Chief Justice Chase in proof of the con- 
tinued existence of the States.^* The war ended in 
April, 1865,25 since which time no man can be tried, 
except in the manner prescribed by the Constitution, 
which knows no doctrine of necessity, but was made to 
meet every emergency. Johnson had favored a general 
amnesty at the end of the war and now pleaded that 
the South be brought back in peace. 

On January 31, he favored permitting Ohio to with- 
draw her assent to the Fourteenth Amendment, as he 
believed that, before the full number of States had 
assented, a State's vote is a mere promise to assent, 
when others are ready. Three days later, Ferry re- 
ferred to Johnson's vote on March 2, 1867 for the recon- 
struction bill and said: 

-^ On deciding on the invalidity of the sequestration act of North Carolina. 
-* Vide decision in Ex parte Milligan. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 221 

I thanked God in my heart that there had come down to 
us, from the palmy days of the Republic, one Senator, who 
would place country above party and give his vote accordingly. 

Johnson explained: 

I did it from a conviction that the measure for which I voted 
was calculated, sooner than any other that I thought was likely 
to be introduced, to heal the troubles of the country and bring 
peace to the South. It is equally true, that never, for one 
moment from the time I gave that vote to the present hour, 
have I regretted it and, under the same circumstances,! should 
vote as I did then. 

He had thought the bill inconsistent with the Con- 
stitution, but 

I yielded my opinion, in order to heal the troubles in which 
the country was placed, and I did it, under a belief .... 
that that measure would be a final one upon the part of Con- 
gress A Senator of the United States, who really 

believes that his country is in danger, unless its condition is 
changed for the better, has no right to stand upon his own 
convictions of constitutional duty, in time of admitted peril 
to the country, when he finds that he differs with many gentle- 
men of acknowledged ability and whose sincerity he had no 
right to question. 

But the desired result had not come. "The country 
is not at peace. The measure for which I voted has 
not proved a finality." Johnson had received commen- 
dation for this vote from many men in the South, even 
those who "perilled their lives in the effort to establish 
for her a separate independence." "If I could be mor- 
ally convinced that the South would in a short time," 
if the supplementary bill be "adopted, be restored to 
the condition in which she was before the war com- 
menced." he would vote for it, but he did not feel that 



222 REVERDY JOHNSON 

this would be the case. He defended the attorney- 
general, for giving the President an opinion as to the 
constitutionality of a bill before it passed Congress, as 
it would be improper for one to defend in the Supreme 
Court a law he thought unconstitutional.^^ He also 
opposed-'' strongly the passage of the Supreme Court 
jurisdiction bill, to take the McCardle case from that 
tribunal. 2^ 

It was a defect in the Constitution that it did not 
provide what courts are to exercise judicial power. But 
for the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to examine all 
cases arising under the Constitution, the government 
would have ended long since. It is a great and peace- 
ful tribunal, "having no power except that which reason 
gives, having no voice except that which speaks the 
law." Stewart had attacked the court and, sneering 
at his "peculiar style of oratory," Johnson denied that 

it was for the political department of the government to deter- 
mine whether a citizen of the United States is a pubHc enemy. 
If he has forfeited the protection of the law, it is a case for the 
courts. If the court, in a case brought before it legitimately 
between parties, .... finds that the law .... 
was one which Congress had no authority under the powers 

*^0n February 5. 

" On March 26. 

28 McCardle had been arrested for disturbing the public peace, exciting to 
insurrection, libeling General Ord, and preventing contracts from being carried 
out. The act of February 5, 1867 had been passed to protect colored people, 
to prevent officers from being harassed by suits for damages and to ascertain 
what were the powers of the government during the war. Under the act, if 
the State courts caused an officer's arrest, application might be made to the 
Federal Courts for a writ of Habeas corpus. The government claimed that the 
Circuit Court had no jurisdiction and the Supreme Court stated that it would 
decide the case, when the case came for trial on its merits. McCardle was 
not arrested until November, 1867, and so could not have been engaged in 
rebellion. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 223 

vested in them by the Constitution, to pass, they have no 
discretion, they must so hold, or violate their duty and their 
oath. 

The fact that the act repealing that which allowed an 
appeal was passed In two days is criticised. It is "a 
dangerous thing to deal with courts of justice In this 
suspicious spirit." "There are but two modes by which 
controversies can be settled, as we all know, force and 
law. Force necessarily leads to destruction. Law, if 
observed, leads to peace." 

When the Washington city charter was debated, 
Johnson stated that, though he had the kindest feeling 
for negroes, he would not appoint them to ofiftces of 
any consequence. Most of them are wholly unedu- 
cated and came to Washington during the war, so they 
have no Interest In the city. Even Sumner did not 
give them tickets to the Impeachment trial. 

It is one thing to give to them all the rights of citizenship, 
to place them upon an equality, political, with all the white 
race and another thing to enable them to be placed in a situa- 
tion, through some political contrivance, some party measure, 
to get possession of the offices of the government. 

If their safety depended on It, he would even give 
them office, but they can enjoy their rights without It 
and the prejudice against their holding office of Itself, 
looking to the peace and quiet of the community, is a 
reason against granting the privilege. 

When Arkansas asked for readmlsslon, his calmness 
and wisdom were shown" by advocacy of a reference 
of the new State constitution to the Judiciary Com- 
mittee. There will be no harm in delay and admission 

» On May 13. 



224 REVERDY JOHNSON 

might lead to the charge that new Senators had been 
added as judges in the impeachment trial. Such addi- 
tion would be improper and no suspicion of the possi- 
bility of it should be allowed. The question of admit- 
ting Arkansas came up again on June i, and Johnson 
said that the States had the right to control the fran- 
chise, just as if there were no Federal Constitution, and 
that Congress had no power to limit it. If the general 
government can not take the regulation of the franchise 
directly from a State, it cannot do so indirectly, nor can 
it impose on Arkansas as a condition of readmission, 
that she shall not regulate the franchise. There are no 
express terms in the Constitution, assuring the equality 
of the States, but, without absolute equality, the govern- 
ment could not exist and the intendment of the Consti- 
tution was clear, from the equality of senatorial repre- 
sentation. If New York and Maryland can regulate 
the suffrage and Arkansas can not, they are not equal. 
A State differs greatly from a territory, which Congress 
may govern as it thinks best for the interest of the 
people, as the territory is held by Congress in trust for 
the benefit of the people of the United States and of 
the territory. 

If we can insist that negroes vote, we may insist that 
women and aliens vote.^"* Congress may not restrict a 
new State from its necessary attributes as an independ- 
ent sovereign government. "I want the union to be 
what it was, in every respect, except slavery." He 
wished reintroduction of the seceded States, not from 
recollection of their past renown, but from hope of future 
renown. Government by military rule through the cen- 
tral government, is unsuited for the States. 

^°0n February 25, he said that, in Maryland, naturalized citizens must pro- 
duce their naturalization papers in order to vote. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 225 

Not that I have any prejudice against the army as such, 
against the officers who have led it during the last war to vic- 
tory upon so many battlefields and have won for themselves 
such imperishable renown, frustrating, as they did, the great- 
est rebellion ever known among men; but because, from the 
very nature of military power, it is dangerous to individual 
freedom. ^^ 

Although he urged the admission of the Southern 
States speedily, and opposed "the imposition of any 
fundamental condition" thereto, he objected to the ad- 
mission of Georgia with a constitution containing a 
clause impairing the obligation of contracts, which was 
unconstitutional.^' 

Questions of taxation Interested Johnson and he 
moved^^ to exempt the crop of 1867 from the cotton 
tax,^^ which he thought unconstitutional, as he could 
not distinguish It from a direct export tax. Taxation 
ought to fall as lightly as possible on the people, while 
the cotton tax Is not only oppressive but ruinous. It 
might have been borne when slavery existed, but "that 
labor we have now, and I am glad to know, terminated 
forever." As It Is desirable to have cotton growing, we 
should give a bounty, rather than discourage the culti- 
vation. It was not a question of rebellion or of loyalty, 

^1 On June 2;^, when the credentials of the Senators from Arkansas were 
referred to the judiciary committee, Johnson said that if Congress did not 
recognize the Arkansas legislature, neither had it that of CaHfornia, when the 
first Senators came therefrom, and remarked that he had once given an opinion 
in Maryland that, if the Governor refused to sign a certificate of election, cre- 
dentials signed by two presiding officers of the General Assembly would be 
sufficiently authenticated. 

^- On June 23. On June 30, he advocated the admission of Florida's Sena- 
tors, although that State said it adopted instead of ratified, the amendments 
to the Federal Constitution. 

2' On December 16. 

^* On January 7. The cotton tax was 10 per cent. 



226 REVERDY JOHNSON 

but of financial policy. We desire to have the South 
reinstated in all the resources of wealth formerly hers 
except slaves. ^^ 

He advocated a drawback on materials for the build- 
ing of vessels, as he believed that'^ "there are some indus- 
tries of the country that are more exclusively national 
than others and, if any one can be said to be more na- 
tional than another, it is the marine, the shipbuilding 
industry of the country," which was virtually extinct 
in the United States. It was an art requiring high skill 
and the Maine shipyards were deserted, while the glories 
of the privateers of 1812, of the Baltimore clippers, and 
the New England boats had passed away. 

I have, for years, felt regret .... at the fact that 
we were about to leave the ocean, the scene of so many of our 
noble exploits, the scene upon which we won such imperishable 
renown in the past, to the hands exclusively of other nations, 

who may become enemies A name upon the 

ocean, one that will not only be respected but feared, is of 
great value to a nation. 

He was a protectionist, but favored" a tax on the 
manufacture of sugar, arguing that the manufacturers 
had made great fortunes during the war and had better 
reduce expenses. 

Whether free trade, in the absolute sense of that term, would, 
at this time, be the proper policy of the government is a ques- 

^ Negroes already were growing the cotton crop on shares and so lose 
twenty-five per cent of the compensation. On March 12, he defended the 
permission given exporters of distilled spirits to export, within thirty days, 
alcohol and rum made before January. On March 28, he opposed granting 
internal revenue collectors the power to compromise, in cases of fraud in pay- 
ing the whiskey tax. On April 6, he said that the departments have probably 
used unexpended appropriations for the ensuring year and have sent in esti- 
mates on that basis. 

^^On March 17. 

" On March 19. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 22/ 

tion which I do not propose to argue. I do not think it would, 
but very many reasons might be given in support of the doc- 
trine. One thing is certain, that we do not mean to adopt 
it. We mean to continue what we have done in the past to 
protect our domestic industries. Then the question in rela- 
tion to every article of domestic industry is, what protection 
does it need, if it be an industry of interest to the country. 

During the session, he spoke several times on District 
of Columbia matters. ^^ He denied the right of Con- 
gress'^ to charter a corporation in the District, with 
right to have an office and hold meetings in a State 
without its consent. On another local matter, his last 
senatorial speech was made, advocating" an appropri- 
ation of $7000 for the Mt. Vernon Association, as the 
government during the war had seized the steamer 
which plied to Mt. Vernon and so the Association lost 
revenue. It was important to prevent the catastrophe 
of Washington's house going to ruin. Johnson felt the 
place was properly in the hands of women, through 
their sympathies. 

All sorts of miscellaneous subjects were dealt with in 
his speeches. The stationery room needed investiga- 
tion.''^ It was better to run the risk of abuse and permit 
the President to send secret agents abroad unofficially, 
than to require their nomination to the Senate.*^ The 
"great measure" passed in 1862 for the building of the 
Union Pacific Railroad was passed in pursuance of a 

^* On December 20, he advocated paying certain claims in reference to the 
District jail. On February 12, when the case of negroes ejected from a Wash- 
ington street car came up, he said he travelled often on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad and had been counsel of the company ever since its organiza- 
tion, but never heard of such wrongs being done on it. On April 7, he objected 
to assessments for public improvements in Washington. 

'^ On January 31. 

*" On July 6; the bill passed on the ninth. 

*i On December 19. 

** On January 30. 



228 REVERDY JOHNSON 

"wise and enlarged policy" and constituted a "national 
undertaking, pregnant with national benefit," which 
private wealth could not accomplish. The Central 
Branch of the railroad should be completed*^ and will 
help St. Louis, Baltimore, and other cities, while it 
will also gain for us the India and China trade, which 
made England and will make us.^^ The naval pension 
trust fund of 1800 should be preserved. ^^ Marine hos- 
pitals are constitutional under the commerce clause^^ and 
should be established on inland waters. An appro- 
priation should be made for a copyright library in the 
Department of the Interior.^^ Officers of the army may 
be allowed to bet, if they stake their own money, and 
it is sufficient*^ to prohibit betting by those who are 
intrusted with public funds. Congress alone may pre- 
scribe rules and regulations for the army*^ and cannot 
delegate this power to the President. The newspapers 
cause all men to form impressions on criminal cases, 
but a man should be allowed to serve as a juror^** who 
has formed an impression, but who swears, to the satis- 
faction of the court, that he will be able to render a 
fair verdict. There is no greater disposition to appoint 
to office on party grounds, than there was for twenty 
years past. 

The system commenced as a dangerous one, a mischievous 
one, .... in the days of General Jackson, .... 
and will be continued .... until healthier sentiment 

« On March 16. 

^* The time in which railroads (on May 18) in Wisconsin and Michigan were 
to be constructed should be extended, so that they may not lose the land grant. 
^5 On March 7. 
"•^On June 29. 
«0n July I. 
** On June 2gf 
" On June 29 
«»0n April 8. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 229 

governs the country.^' The Senate should not consider nomi- 
nations to petty offices, such as those in the navy yards, for 
to do so would take up its whole time and unfit the body for 
its "constitutional functions." 

Johnson spoke on diplomatic afifairs, advocating that 
a minister be sent to Ecuador, to the intent that we 
may prevent South American commerce falling into the 
hands of England and France,'^- and insisting upon the 
need of a second assistant secretary of state." Early 
in the session^^ speaking in opposition to recognition as 
belligerents of the Abyssinians who were at war with 
England, he declared that the only result of the resolves 
would be to induce some of our people to take the 
Abyssinian flag and prey on English commerce, which 
might lead to war between us and Great Britain, thus 
enormously increasing the debt. He could imagine no 
greater calamity to human liberty and to the tu^o coun- 
tries than war between them. Without calling into 
question the right of the British government to recog- 
nize the Confederates as belligerents, the act had been 
a "gross error," unkind to America, and it would have 
been almost suicidal to Great Britain, if she had accom- 
plished the division of the United States. England had 
violated her neutrality in permitting the cruisers, espe- 
cially the Alabama, to go out. Russell was especially 
unfriendly and even yet delays a settlement. "England 
owes it, not only to us, but to her own honor, to pay 
every dollar of the losses which American citizens sus- 

*• On March 27. 

^^^On March 10. 

^^On June 22, he also defended Hunter, the veteran holder of the oifice 
of Assistant Secretary of State, and urged the appointment of an examiner of 
claims for that department. On March 13, he had advocated the payment of 
the claim of the heirs of Asbury Dickins, who had acted as Secretary of Treasury 
and of State, while chief clerk. 

'"* On December 19. 



230 REVERDY JOHNSON 

tained, in consequence of the cruise" of the Alabama. 
Our claims should be arbitrated, but the question of 
belligerency is not necessarily connected with them. 
If we recognize the Abyssinians as belligerents, our act 
may jeopardize our Alabama claims. Our relations with 
Great Britain are now friendly and we should not re- 
taliate upon her, when she apparently regrets her past 
conduct. "Peace between the two is the interest of 
humanity. Peace between the two is in the interest 
of constitutional freedom." Such strong and wise words 
on so important a subject naturally made men feel that 
Johnson could be trusted with our interests in London, 
especially after it became evident that he would not 
be reelected to the Senate, on account of his votes in 
March, 1867, for the reconstruction programme. ^^ In 
speaking upon the rights of naturalized citizens,^® John- 
son said 

This government never can permit her naturalized citizens 
to be punished by England, or Germany, or any other nation, 
for acts which, as citizens of the United States, they had a right 
to perform. 

If England would not admit the doctrine of alienable 
allegiance, "it would form just cause for war," which 
he hoped might not happen. 

In the summer of 1868, Charles Francis Adams re- 
turned from England to the United States and the 
President offered Reverdy Johnson" the vacant post of 

'* Vide letter of James Touchstone to A. W. Bradford, who had urged re- 
election, January 8, 1868. The Bradford papers were used through the 
courtesy of Gov. Bradford's son, Mr. Samuel VV. Bradford, of Bel Air. 

" On December 19. 

^' George B. McClellan was first named and was rejected. Vide 12 Harper's 
Weekly 42 (July 4, 1868) for pitture and sketch of Johnson with reference to 
the English appointment. The nomination is there called " judicious." 



REVERDY JOHNSON 23 1 

minister to Great Britain. The offer was accepted, a 
unanimous confirmation by the Senate followed on June 
12, and, on July 9, Johnson rose in the chamber and, 
overpowered by his feelings, asked Vickers, his colleague, 
to read his farewell address. He retired, with the "deep- 
est regret and with a grateful remembrance of the kind- 
nesses received from his fellow members." He went to 
London, "influenced by a sincere wish to secure to both 
governments, an adjustment, honorable to both," of the 
difficulties existing between them. The Congressional 
Globe contains a remarkable note, stating that, at the 
close of the valedictory, the Senators rose, simultaneously, 
and grasped Johnson's hand in turn, to wish him suc- 
cess. ^'^ He had not overstated the facts in saying that 
he had "contracted friendships, which have been a con- 
stant source of pleasure and which I shall ever value. 
I cannot retire without the deepest regret." In the 
important period in which he had served, "although 
differing widely in regard to most" subjects "with a 
majority of the Senate and supporting my opinons with 
earnestness, it will always be a great gratification to me 
to remember that, at all times, by every^ member, I 
was treated with uniform courtesy and, I need hardly 
say, Mr. President, that such courtesy I never failed 
most gladly to reciprocate." He was going to Great 
Britain looking "with hope to the approval of my asso- 
ciates. They will do me the justice to believe that I 
have been governed throughout by an earnest desire 
to maintain all the rights and prpmote the interests of 
our beloved country," He should "never cease grate- 
fully to remember the kindnesses evinced for me in this 

"* At Johnson's suggestion, the Governor of Maryland named William 
Pinkncy White as his successor. The foraaal resignation to the Governor of 
Maryland was filed with the Senate on July lo. 



2;^2 REVERDY JOHNSON 

chamber" and, gazing into the future, felt that, with 
unity of government, "imagination itself will be at a 
loss adequately to conceive the future greatness of our 
land." 

In Mr. Blaine's words, Johnson "carried with him 
the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. Ap- 
pointed directly after the impeachment trial of Presi- 
dent Johnson, he was among the few statesmen of the 
Democratic party who could have secured the ready 
confirmation of the Senate, for a mission which demanded 
in its incumbent a talent for diplomacy and a thorough 
knowledge of international law."*^ 

^' 2 Blaine's Twenty Years, 489. 



CHAPTER VII 

Minister to England (1868-69) 

Johnson's selection as Minister to England was well 
received. Harper's Weekly^ said : 

He fully agrees with the views of the government on the 
intricate questions with England and will probably pursue, 
under the same policy and general instructions, the work so 
well conducted heretofore by Mr. Adams. 

The President might have nominated "an agent more 
acceptable," as to political principles, "to the Senate 
and country, but hardly one of greater ability, or higher 
character" than Johnson. Once A Week^ thought the 
appointment to be of the "happiest augury for the 
friendship of the two countries. When speaking in the 
Senate — as he often did — on foreign relations of the 
United States, his tone was ever one of moderation and 
of conciliation."* 

1 Vol. 12, p. 42, July 4, 1868, with picture of Johnson and sketch. 

2 October 31, 1868, vol. 2, p. 351. 

' The article bears witness to the fact that his "public and private character 
is without a blemish" and his "abilities have been sincerely used in aid of 
honest convictions." His later years had been "spent in unceasing efforts to 
benefit his country and to soften the bitterness which had gradually grown up 

between the two sections The lucidity .and penetrating quality 

of his mind, his great experience, his intimate knowledge, no less of the lore 
and general spirit, than of the details of the law, the clear and forcible manner 
in which he seized and urged his points, the intellectual strength which he 
always displayed in grasping the .whole scope of his case, gave him advantages 
possessed by very few, if any, of his professional competitors." In the Senate, 
"he shone forth, as one of the most powerful orators of that body, nobly sus- 
taining the cause of the Union, heartily voting the war supplies, advocating 
the extinction of treason, and lending all the strength of his marked abilities 
to the best interests of the land." 

233 



234 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Johnson made a speech at the North Western Saenger- 
bund festival at Schuetzen Park in Baltimore* on July 
14 and, on the next day, a complimentary banquet was 
tendered him at the Eutaw House. ^ Five days after- 
ward. Secretary Seward gave Johnson his instructions, 
which emphasized the importance of friendly relations 
between Ihe United States and England and stated that 
the most important question requiring attention was 
the recognition of the alienability of allegiance, so that 
our naturalized Irishmen might visit England and be 
treated as Americans. We had been neutral during the 
Fenian troubles, with much difficulty and inconvenience, 
and felt that we had the right to insist on this conces- 
sion. The location of the boundary line in Puget Sound 
was. also to be considered and, if Great Britain makes 
satisfactory agreement as to these points, Johnson should 
advert to the "subject of mutual claims of citizens and 
subjects of the two countries against the government of 
each other, respectively." In other words, he was to 
sound Stanley, the English foreign secretary, as to his 
willingness to have the Alabama claims referred to a 
joint commission like that of 1853, although the United 
States should not be distinctly committed to such a 
proposition.^ 

Sumner, who was chairman of the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, wrote the Duchess of Argyll on July 28: 

Reverdy Johnson came to see me last evening.^ He will 
begin on the naturalization question and has every reason to 

* Scharf, Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 676. 

' A. W. Bradford papers. 

*The dispatches, etc., passing between Seward and Johnson are found in 
I Diplomatic Correspondence, 40th Congress, 3rd Session, pp. 328, 347 to 441. 
An incredible story as to Johnson's ignorance of English history may be found 
in 10 Cent. L. J. 106. 

' 4 Pierce's Sumner, 359. ' 



REVERDY JOHNSON 235 

believe that it will be settled harmoniously. He is more truly 
a lawyer, than any person sent by the United States, except 
perhaps Pinkney. He is essentially pacific and detests the 
idea of war or wrangle with England. On this account, I am 
sorry to lose him from ray Committee in the Senate. 

Sumner's biography states that Sumner had thought 
"our interests in England were too important to be 
hazarded on a compromise and preferred to have the 
post vacant;" but, when he found the majority of the 
Senate were not inclined to this view, he thought that 
the next best thing was to avoid a contest, so that 
Johnson might feel an obligation to the Republican 
majority.^ 

He was thought to be a better person for the post than any 
other the President was likely to name, he had shown him- 
self, on the foreign relations committee, uniformly conservative 
and wise; he had risen above his surroundings in tiis support 
of the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment, he was very 
amiable with his associates of both parties in the Senate, and 
there was a general disposition to give him the compliment of 
the brief term of service which remained under the present 
administration. . - 

This statement shows where Sumner stood in refer- 
ence to Johnson. From the same authority, we learn 
that Johnson had not waited to call on Sumner, until 
he was on the eve of sailing, but had gone there the day 
after the confirmation of his appointment and had 
thanked Sumner warmly for the unanimous action of 
the Senate. 

In their conversations, naturalization and the ques- 
tion of San Juan Island in Puget Sound were discussed. 
No reference was made to the Alabama claims, which 

'4 Pierce's Sumner, 383. • * 



236 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Sumner supposed would not be considered by Johnson, 
but would go over to the next administration. In spite 
of his outward friendliness, Sumner gave Johnson no 
letters of introduction in England, 

Johnson arrived in England in August, charged by 
Seward with the commission to negotiate three treaties, 
viz.: recognizing our right to naturalize those who had 
been born British subjects, defining the boundary be- 
tween Vancouver's Island and the United States with 
special reference to San Juan Island; and arranging for 
an adjustment of the claims arising out of Great Britain's 
alleged failure to assume a proper neutral position during 
the Civil War, the so-called Alabama claims. 

From his first arrival, Johnson received the warmest 
possible welcome. An English magazine said that his 
appointment was "of the happiest augury for the friend- 
ship of the countries" and quoted with approval his 
statement that he came, "hoping to be the envoy of 
peace and good will, and more, of friendship and cordial 
cooperation, in the progress of the race." It was said 
that his reception was "worthy of the .distinguished 
statesman, high-souled gentleman and accomplished 
scholar that he is." On August 18, Johnson was in 
London and sent a copy of his credentials and a note to 
Lord Stanley asking for an audience. The reply was 
made that Stanley was on the Continent with the Queen 
and would not return until the middle of September. 
While waiting for this, Johnson visited Disraeli, the 
Prime Minister, at Hughenden Manor, his country seat 
in Buckinghamshire, and met the Lord Chancellor and 
others of the House of Lords. He wrote Seward, on 
August 29, that nothing of a political character was 
discussed, but the friendly feeling shown had-madehim 
hopeful. Lord Stanley returned to England and John- 



REVERDY JOHNSON 237 

son met him on the tenth of September. They talked 
together, very satisfactorily, for more than half an hour, 
speaking of the subjects in dispute, in general and frank 
terms.^ On September 12, Johnson wrote Seward of this 
conversation and stated that he would endeavor to show 
Lord Stanley that Parliamentary action would not be 
necessary on the matter of naturalization, so as to avoid 
the delay incident to the passage of an act. As to the 
other matters, Johnson was "convinced there will be 
no serious difficulty," and asked, that he might go on 
with the other questions, without waiting for the con- 
clusio^i of the naturalization treaty, if there was delay 
therein.^ Johnson h,ad an audience with Queen Victoria, 
September 14, when she spoke in "very friendly terms." 
On the twenty-fifth he saw Stanley, with such satisfac- 
tory results, that he was hopeful of agreeing, in a week 
or two, to a protocol of a treaty of naturalization, which 
will settle matters, as far as possible, previous to legis- 
lation which cannot be expected before spring. On 
October 7, he wrote Seward that he and Stanley^** had 
nearly agreed on the protocol and that he continued to 
"receive the strongest evidence from the other mem- 
bers of the government, as well as Lord Stanley and 
from the English public generally, of the friendly feel- 
ing entertained by them all for the government and 
citizens of the United States and I, therefore, entertain 
no doubt that all matters now in controversy will soon 
be satisfactorily arranged." Two days later, he cabled 
news of the signing of the protocol and wrote that the 
document "shows that the government does not hold, 

' He was also trying to secure tjje release of two Fenians, Warren and Cos- 
tello, and was hopeful of success. 

1" Johnson- steadily felt (Despatch of February 1 7 to Seward) that Stanley 
was as "anxious" for the settlement of all difficulties, "as I was." 



238 REVERDY JOHNSON 

but, on the contrary expressly renounces, the principle 
of alienable allegiance and admits the right of expatria- 
tion." He was assured, both by the present government 
and also by the Liberals, "who may possibly succeed 
them," that Parliament would pass the desired act. 

Meanwhile Seward, sanguine of success, had written 
him" on September 23. 

In event that you become convinced that an arrangement 
of the naturalization question, which would be satisfactory to 
the United States, .... can be made, .... 
you may open concurrent negotiations upon the two questions 
but that these negotiations shall not be com- 
pleted, nor your proceedings deemed obligatory, until after the 
naturalization question shall have been satisfactorily settled, 
by treaty or by law of Parliament, since the United States 
must negotiate with proper deference and respect to the state 
of opinion which prevails in the Senate, in Congress, and among 
the people. Without a satisfactory naturalization treaty, the 
Senate might "reject even the very arrangement, which other- 
wise might have proved satisfactory, in regards to the San 
Juan and claims questions. It was desirable that the new 
administrations of the United States and of Great Britain 
should find themselves relieved of all the international ques- 
tions, which, although they are not intrinsically difficult, have, 
nevertheless, so long and so painfully embarrassed both nations. 

So wrote Seward to Johnson and the latter replied 
on October 9, that he would next proceed on the San 
Juan question and expected to discuss it with Lord 
Stanley on the sixteenth. So speedily did they agree 
on this point that, on the seventeenth, Johnson wrote 
that he had just signed a protocol for settling the San 

" On September 22, Sumner wrote Bemis: "Seward is sanguine and Johnson 
writes that he shall settle everything. Nothing just yet, but everything very 
soon. The naturalization treaty comes first. Seward then expects a com- 
mission to hear and determine everything" (4 Pierce's Sumner, 371). 



REVERDY JOHNSON 239 

Juan boundary controversy by arbitration, the conven- 
tion not to go into effect until the naturaHzation question 
be settled. 

On the question of the Alabama claims, Johnson set 
to work at once and, on October 20, cabled Seward, in 
cipher, a request to be allowed to sign a convention, on 
the basis of the treaty of February, 1853, leaving the 
questions to the King of Prussia as arbiter. Seward 
was out of Washington, but Hunter, the Assistant Sec- 
retary of State, submitted the dispatch to a cabinet 
meeting, on the day on which it was sent.^* Four days 
later, Seward replied by cable that Johnson should insist 
on a convention like that of 1853, without naming an 
arbiter. Seward cabled again, on the next day, that 
the naturalization protocol was approved: "Can you 
hasten the claims convention?" A day later, he trans- 
mitted by cable the President's commendation for John- 
son's diligence in the naturalization matter. Johnson's 
interview with Lord Stanley, on October 29, was so 
satisfactory that he sent Seward word that he expected 
to sign a convention as instructed, within a week, and 
that he hoped that the President's message to Congress 
in December may communicate a satisfactory adjust- 
ment of "all matters which "weaken the friendly rela- 
tions" of the two countries. Meanwhile, the presiden- 
tial election occurred, with its great majority for Grant, 
and Seward feared the "claims protocol will meet oppo- 
sition."^' Johnson had pushed forw^ard so vigorously 
that he was able to notify Seward, on November 10, 
that he had signed a convention "for settlement of all 

** 3 Welles' Diary, 459. 

" He called, on November 7, to have the President of Switzerland named as 
arbitrator. On November 7, Johnson sent a hopeful message as to the Claims 
Convention and. on the loth, reported an amendment of the San Juan protocol. 



240 REVERDY JOHNSON 

the claims that the citizens of either country may have 
against" the other. "What are known as the Alabama 
claims are, of course, embraced by it." The question of 
the recognition of belligerency was included and the 
convention was to sit in London, as most of the evi- 
dence was in Liverpool. Seward did not like this ar- 
rangement as to location and insisted, by a cable dis- 
patch, that the convention sit in Washington. Johnson 
replied, on November 12, that he would try to obtain 
the change, though it would cause delay to hold the 
sessions in Washington, as the proof was in England. 
He had not understood that the place of the convention's 
session was important, as a dispatch sent to Adams, 
while he was minister, had stated that this was a matter 
not to be insisted on. Seward cabled an immediate 
reply that, in view of the "highly disturbed national 
sensibilities," the naming of Washington was "indispen- 
sable." As Lord Stanley was absent from London for 
a few days, Johnson could not act immediately, but, on 
the sixteenth, he replied that he was hopeful of success 
and, on the twenty- third, sent Seward word that the 
British ministry had agreed to Washington and the 
"people of all classes, especially the opposition leaders, 
wish a satisfactory solution" of the difficulties. On the 
next day, Johnson cabled a request to make the San 
Juan protocol a convention and was surprised to receive 
an instant reply that that question may rest for the 
moment and that the claims agreement, "unless amend- 
ed, is useless." The protocol provided that all claims 
should be submitted to an arbitration of four commis- 
sioners, two from each party and, if they could not 
agree, the points of dispute should be submitted to some 
sovereign as umpire. Seward took the dispatch to the 
cabinet meeting and told Secretary Welles, of the Navy, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 24I 

that he was sick, for he "had got the damnedest strange 
thing from Reverdy Johnson for a protocol." He sub- 
mitted it to the cabinet, with a "lugubrious look," and 
said that the whole thing was contrary to his instruc- 
tions and must be sent back. The members present 
were surprised, but did not inquire into the points of 
difference and Welles recorded, in his Diary, that he did 
not believe in a speedy settlement of the difficulties with 
England. ^^ Seward sent Johnson his views, in a long 
cablegram on November 27, stating that he was willing 
to accept a convention like that of 1853, pure and simple, 
but that the one which Johnson had submitted was 
unacceptable, as it did not put the Alabama claims on 
the same basis as the others, though they constituted 
the largest and most material part of the American 
claims. If Lord Stanley be offended, Johnson should 
explain matters to him. If he accepts Seward's amend- 
ments, Johnson may sign a protocol as to the claims 
and convert the San Juan protocol into a convention. 
Johnson replied to Seward that he could not under- 
stand the validity of the objections and that Lord 
Stanley would not^^ yield to Seward's requirement that 
a foreign arbitrator be appointed; but that he hoped 
that the new liberal government, which was about to 
assume office would be more satisfactory. Lord Claren- 
don would hold the foreign office and Johnson, who 
thought he entertained sincere friendship for the United 
States, intended to renew negotiations with him, as 
soon as possible.*^ Johnson was as good as his word 
and, on December 16, apprised Seward that he had met 

1* 3 Welles Diary, 468. 
1* Cables of November 28 and December 5. 

i*On December 14, Seward wrote that the views previously given are en- 
tirely in accordance with the expectations of the country. 



242 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Clarendon and hoped to conclude a satisfactory arrange- 
ment. Two days later, Johnson spoke of a new arrange- 
ment in which, if the commissioners can not agree and 
think there should be a friendly government as arbi- 
trator, they shall report to Great Britain and the United 
States,which nations shall select one within three months. 
Just before Christmas, Johnson informed Seward that 
Clarendon refused to make the agreement in the form of 
a protocol and insisted on signing the convention in Lon- 
don.'^ Seward suggested minor amendments to John- 
son, on January 11, and said that, if these were made, 
the residue was satisfactory and slgnatnire could be 
made, either in Washington or London, so that the 
convention might go to the Senate at once. The same 
directions were given as to the San Juan convention." 
Clarendon agreed to Seward's requests and, on January 
14, Johnson was able to cable that the conventions were 
signed as directed. In a letter which followed the dis- 
patch, Johnson wrote that he takes it for granted that 
the treaty will meet the approval of the President and 
the Senate. Great Britain had yielded two grounds 
asserted previously, for they now agree to refer to arbitra- 
tion our demand and also the right of Great Britain to 
recognize the Confederate States as belligerents, "I have 
reason to believe," Johnson added, "that the abandon- 
ment of the grounds originally taken, to which I have 
referred, has been due, in a great measure, to the growing 
friendly feeling for the United States, which has been 
so strongly exhibited since my arrival in this country. 
Anticipating that that would be its effect, I determined 
to lose no time in cultivating such a feeling, whilst never 
forgetting scrupulously, to regard the rights and honor 

1' Vide dispatches of December 23 and 24. 
18 Vide also dispatches of January 12 and 13. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 243 

of my country. This has been my sole motive in the 
speeches, which I have deUvered since reaching Eng- 
land." The Alabama claims were especially named in 
the treaty, which provided for the appointment of two 
commissioners by each government, who should meet 
at Washington and name an arbitrator. If they can- 
not agree on one, he is to be selected by lot. If 
two or more of the commissioners prefer a friendly 
sovereign, they must report to their governments, who 
shall choose one within six months. 

Johnson had done much to establish an entente cordial. 
In a speech at Leeds, for example, Johnson assured the 
English that the Americans looked on them as brothers 
and that a war between countries so united would be 
as bad as the Civil War. He stated that he was struck 
with the similarity of the political institutions and had 
come with full power and with every disposition to 
settle all outstanding disputes. Even the hostile Satur- 
day Review admitted, ^^ in commenting upon this speech, 
that the English had done wrong and that Johnson had 
an opportunity to accomplish definite results, but his 
courtesy, his pacific disposition, and his dislike to quarrel 
with men had, undoubtedly, led him too far.^" On Sep- 
tember 24, at the Cutlers' banquet at Sheffield, Johnson 
was a guest and spoke "of " ties, stronger than links of 
iron, which bound the two nations." He was followed 
by Mr. Roebuck, a member of Parliament, who had 
sympathized with the Confederates and who spoke of 
the "monopoly of the government of the United States 
by the buccaneering element," and the exclusion of edu- 

19 Vol. 26, p. 414. 

'" Rhodes (6 Histoty of United States, 334) remarks that, in after dinner 
speeches, Johnson "spoke, in effusive terms, of the friendly sentiments that 
should obtain between peoples of the same race, speaking the same language 
and reading the same literature." 



244 REVERDY JOHNSON 

cated men from public life.^i The Nation," which was 
friendly neither to Johnson nor the administration, 
praised him for saying nothing in reply at the time and 
for correcting Roebuck's "absurdities in perfectly calm 
and temperate language, "23 when replying to an address 
on the following day. He said in his reply: 

If either country wrongs^* the other, or suffers the other to 
be wronged, when it could have prevented it, it should not hesi- 
tate, when convinced of the error, to redress the consequences 
which may have resulted from it and I have so much confidence 
in the enlightened judgment of your government and its love 
of justice and I have like confidence in my own, that I feel 
convinced, if either commits a wrong, it will, when satisfied 
of it, confess it and do whatever may be necessary to redress 
it." 

The Times severely criticised Roebuck for his discour- 
tesy ^^ and Johnson came out of the encounter with prob- 
ably increased popularity in England. In America also, 
he had not lost much ground. Harper's Weekly, it is 
true, commented on "Mr. Reverdy Johnson's Indis- 
cretions," but the Nation," while feeling that "decency 

* 

does require that he should hold aloof from persons 
opposed to the United States," added that he should 

** Rhodes censures Johnson rather harshly for going to the dinner, after he 
knew Roebuck was to be present. 

^ Vol. 7, p. 242. . • 

23 Rhodes, not realizing the habitual use of the courteous phrase "my friend" 
by Johnson, objects to his using it in reference to Rofebuck in the reply. 

" Vide dispatch of February 1 7 to Seward. 

** The answer was published, Johnson wrote, "with approbation, by almost 
the entire press." 

*« Rhodes casts it up against Johnson that Roebuck wrote the Times that 
Johnson "has given me every assurance that he felt greatly pleased by all 
that had happened since his arrival here and to myself, personally, he used 
expressions of kindness and friendship, which touched me very nearly." 

" October i, vol. 7, p. 266. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 245 

not be condemned too strongly, till it were known 
whether, "behind his fair words, there is any real con- 
cession on the subject of the rights of the country." 
A month later, a banquet was given to him in Liverpool, 
at which Lord Stanley and Gladstone both spoke and 
at which Johnson made a more serious mistake, by shak- 
ing hands with Mr. Laird, the builder of the Alabama. 
It is true that Laird was the representative in Parlia- 
ment of Birkenhead and part of Liverpool, but his act 
led the Nation to say' that Johnson's "performances 
make the judicious of all parties* grieve deeply." To 
the American people, he appeared to talk too much and 
to fraternize with "notorious enemies and revilers of 
the United States. "^^ The feeling was strong that he 
had "disgraced his government"^^ by persisting in his 
"foolish cQurses." Welles wrote in his Diary on Decem- 
ber 21,3'' iha.t Johnson "i^ doing neither himself, nor the 
country, credit in England. By last accounts, he was 
corresponding and dining with Laird. There is in much 
of his conduct, and especially in this, a degree of ser- 
vility that is disgusting." Undoubtedly Rhodes is cor- 
rect in thinking that, in the United States, Johnson's 
actions "injured his standing and impaired his author- 
ity," but he does not attribute sufficient importance to 
the influence and popularity in England that Johnson 
gained by his course. It was much to have the Saturday 
Review, which h^d been hostile to our nation, say that 
the Liverpool banquet was a great success and that 
"Mr. Johnson is an excellent example'^ of what "experi- 
enced and conciliatory men of business" can "do in a 

'* Vol. 7, p. 342, October 28. 
^' Nation, vol. 7, p. 383. 

30 Vol. Ill, p. 488. 

31 Vol. 26, p. 544. 



246 REVERDY JOHNSON 

very short time, when they set about their task in the 
right way. He has not only made himself popular in 
England, although he has only been a few weeks here, 
but he has done much to make his countrymen popular 
here. He does this by being, at once, cordial and 
straightforward." The same feeling marked a cartoon 
published in the number of Punch for December 26 
and representing Johnson, Uncle Sam, and John Bull, 
"Under the Mistletoe." 

Seward had been optimistic as to Johnson's success, 
for sometime before the treaties were concluded. As 
early as December 4, he relieved Welles from anxiety 
by saying that he had "great confidence in the success" 
of Johnson's plan. "Does it," said Welles, "embrace 
claims of England for cotton and other property, cap- 
tured or destroyed during the war?" Seward replied 
emphatically, "No, it does not." In reply to further 
queries, Seward asserted that the plan shut off all claims 
for prizes condemned, in American courts and consid- 
ered nothing "which could come within our admiralty 
or local jurisdiction. "32 On January 15, immediately 
after receiving the cablegrams announcing the conclu- 
sion of the treaties, Seward told Welles that he had all 
three treaties. Welles asked if they permitted England 
to present claims for*loss of property by their people 
during the Civil War and, when Seward said yes to 
this question, 3' continued: 

Such a treaty, including "prize captures arid cotton, is, in 
every point of view, adverse to us. The balance of account 
will be against us; but why should we consent to submit to 
arbitrament at all the destruction of British property sent to 
assist the rebels or which was destroyed within rebel lines. 

« 3 Diary, 474. 
« 3 Diary, 506. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 247 

When Seward protested that: "We could not have a 
treaty, unless it included all claims on both sides," 
Welles replied: "But why permit, or admit, that such 
property, captured on rebel vessels, or in rebel terri- 
tory, can be recognized as a claim, a matter of contro- 
versy?" Seward asked a counter question, instead of 
replying directly: "Did not we claim for the Alabama 
captures?" but Welles rejoined: 

That was a very different question. They had improperly 
interfered, against our government, with which they had trea- 
ties and were at peace, without cause and to our injury. We 
had done no such wrong towards them. While, therefore, we 
had a just and equitable claim, they had none. If they have 
consented to arbitrament on the question of British municipal 
law, in permitting the Alabama to be built, fitted out, and 
manned in England, they have done it to get an advantage of 
us in the matter of sovereignty and other particulars also. 

Later in the cabinet meeting, McCulIoh, the Secretary 
of the Treasury, agreed with Welles that England would 
"make a balance against us," and expressed doubts 
"if these matters would be adjusted in our day — they 
would pass down to another generation." Seward 
show;ed annoyance at this speech, but said nothing, while 
Browning remarked that he was gratified that the Ala- 
bama claims were specifically named. No other mem- 
ber of the cabinet expressed an opinion, but President 
Johnson, who appeared to Welles to have previously 
consulted with Seward, said: "Right or wrong, I shall 
try it." ^ 

The treaties were submitted to the Senate at once 
and Sumner seemed at first rather favorably inclined 
towards them. He wrote John Bright, on January 17, 
that "they would have been ratified, at any time last 



248 REVERDY JOHNSON 

year, almost unanimously.^'' I fear that time will be 
needed to smooth the way now. Our minister has 
advertised the questions by his numerous speeches, so 
that he has provoked the public attention, if not oppo- 
sition. .... You are aware, of course, that the feel- 
ing towards Mr. Seward will not help the treaties." 
Two days later, Sumner wrote Bright again and, in 
speaking of a conversation on the preceding evening 
with General Grant, the President-elect, stated that: 

He did not seem to object to the naturalization and San Juan 
negotiations but, I think, he had a different feeling in regard 
to the claims convention. He asked why this could not be 
allowed to go over to the next administration.^^^ 

A favorable opinion of the treaties at first impression 
was also expressed in the Nation^® on January 21, that 
Johnson, "after all, seems likely to come home from 
England with credit, his fraternizations with unworthy 
persons, his post-prandial oratory, and his difficulties of 
all kinds about dinners, to the CQntrary notwithstand- 
ing." Of the claims treaty, it was also said that "he 
has obtained not only the concession of all he had asked 
for, but of all Mr. Seward chose to ask for in addition." 
Two weeks later, ^^ the wind had veered and it was an- 
nounced that the treaty would be rejected, on the ground 
that England had prolonged the war for a year by her 
actions. The opposition grew and, on February 11, 
the Nation staled that "Mr. Johnson cuts a pitiable 
figure," that the public was in favor of keeping the 
question open, and that even the private claimants of 
damages from the Alabama supported this course. As 

^ 4 Pierce's Sumner, 368. 
^ 4 Pierce's Sumner, 368. 
'«Vol. 8, p. 42. 
" Nation, vol. 8, p. 82. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 249 

a proof of this fact one of the heaviest sufferers had 
signed a petition against ratification of the treaty.'^ The 
objections arose from rnany causes.*^ Some declared 
that Johnson had "truckled to the British aristocracy 
and ought to have snubbed them, instead of mak- 
ing friendly treaties and after dinner speeches. Some 
thought the treaties must be wrong, because the English 
had agreed to them. Others wanted no treaty, but 
rather a standing grievance, as a basis for future war 
with England," and still others considered that "the 
fact that they were made by President Johnson's Secre- 
tary of State and minister was reason enough for refus- 
ing to accept them." Justin McCarthy, whose attitude 
was one of friendliness, thus sums up the situation.'*" 
Johnson, "with a kindly and good-natured purpose to 
put an end to an internal quarrel," seemed not 

to have considered the difference between skinning over a 
wound and healing it. The defect of his convention was that 
it made the whole question a mere matter of individual claims. 
It professed to have to deal with a number of personal and 
private claims of various kinds, pending since a former settle- 
ment in 1853, claims made on the one side by British subjects 
against the American government and on the other by Amer- 
ican citizens against the English government, and it proposed 
to throw in the Alabama claims with the others and have a 
convention for the general clearance of the whole account. 
Now it must be evident to any one, English or American, who 
considers what the complaints made by the American govern- 
ment were, that this way of dealing with questions could not 

possibly satisfy the American people The claim 

set up by the United States on account of the cruise of the 
Alabama was first of all a national claim. 

S8V0I. 8, p. 102. 

'* 3 Seward's Seward, 395. 

^oHistorj' of Our Own Times, vol. IV, p. 158. 



250 REVERDY JOHNSON 

Johnson sent Seward two long dispatches defending 
his course. *i He had deemed it important to ascertain 
what was the public sentiment of Great Britain and to 
"cultivate, on every proper occasion which offered itself, 
the friendly feelings" of the English, and so had made 
after dinner speeches. The fixing of the date of claims 
at 1853 should cause no offense. No provision was made 
for the submission of the losses which our government, 
as such, may have sustained, for "a nation's honor can 
have no compensation in money, and the depredations 
of the Alabama were on property in which our nation 
had no direct pecuniary interest. If it is urged that 
England was at fault in recognizing too soon the bellig- 
erency of the Confederate States, why is not complaint 
made also against France? The time allowed in the 
treaty was not too long and the admission of English, 
as well as American claims was necessary, for it was 
'as absurd as it would be insulting' to 'suppose that 
a government, alive to its own honor' as the English 
had ever been, would consent to negotiate upon the 
hypothesis that they had forfeited it." This "able and 
elaborate" exposition of Johnson's views was not given 
the Senate by Seward, as it reached him at the close 
of the session of Congress. 

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted 
unanimously, in February, to. report the claims treaty 
unfavorably, but did not report it until March 16, after 
Grant had been inaugurated. The treaty undoubtedly 
gave almost "personal offense to the mass of people" 
in the Northern States and seemed to them to admit 

*^ On February 17 and 20. On February 6, he had written that the Fenian 
prisoner Costello had been released and, on February 15, he stated that Queen 
Victoria, on the tenth, had answered favorably the request which he had made 
on January 27 that he might appear in plain citizen's evening dress at court, 
ceremonials, without cocked hat or sword and knee breeches. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 25 1 

that the "claims of the United States against the con- 
duct of Great Britain as a government were mere rant."^^ 
Sumner spoke ably against the treaty, on April 13, and 
Lowell wrote Leslie Stephen"^ that Sumner had "ex- 
pressed the national feeling of the moment pretty faith- 
fully" and that "the country was blushing at the maud- 
lin blarney of Reverdy Johnson and that made the old 
red spot, where we felt that our cheek had been slapped, 
sting again." The treaty received but one favorable 
vote and Welles wrote this^* epitaph : 

Thus end the labors of Seward and Reverdy Johnson on that 
important subject. I never thought that this was the time, 
or that they rightly appreciated the question, or that they 
were the proper men to adjust or to attempt the settlement 
of it. 

After Johnson's death, however, the Nation summed- 
up the matter more accurately in saying: 

Even his Alabama negotiations, now that the passions of 
the time are no longer active,*^ must be acknowledged to 
have been creditable to him and it requires a good deal of dis- 
crimination to make out, wherein the settlement obtained by 
him fell short of what was afterwards obtained by General 
Grant. The real objection to his treaty was that it was nego- 
tiated by a Johnsonian Democrat, who was too polite to the 
British aristocracy, at a time when we hated the British 
aristocracy. • 

"" . . * 
Meanwhile Johnson was closing his English ministry.'** 

He continued to attend dinners and spoke at the inaugu- 

*2 Vide 2 Blaine, Twenty Years in Congress, 489. 

*^ On April 24, 1869, 2 Lowell's Letters, 26. 

^ 3 Diary 578, April 16. 

<* Vol. 22, p. 106. 

*^0n Seward's leaving oflace in March, Johnson wrote him, 3 Seward's 
Seward, 398, a personal and grateful note, congratulating him on the adminis- 
tration of the department of state. 



252 REVERDY JOHNSON 

ral banquet of the Colonial Society on March lo.*' 
The Times extolled him, but the Spectator said,"** "there 
is an end of Mr. Reverdy Johnson at last and we can- 
not affect to be sorry. Never was a man so bespattered 
with senseless praise. He wanted to forgive and forget 
all around" and "put forth enormous demands," while 
he "professed enormous friendship." 

Arriving in New York early in June,*^ he spoke of the 
hospitality .he had received, alluded to Sumner's speech 
as a preposterous performance and looked for a reaction 
in his favor. 

The completest defense of his treaty, which I have 
found, is contained in a letter which Johnson wrote on 
November 28, 1870,^° to John A. Parker, president of the 
Great Western Insurance Company, in answer to an 
inquiry for information. "Under this convention," 
Johnson wrote, 

I have not the shadow of a doubt that all the losses to our 
citizens inflicted by the Alabama and other vessels, fitted out 
as she was, would long since have been fully discharged. The 
public sentiment of the people of Great Britain exhibited to 
me on visits by invitation to all the large towns in England 
and Scotland obviously favored such payment .... 

*'' 2 Morleys' Gladstone, 401. Johnson made some facetious remarks about 
the colonies being transferred from the Union Jack to the Stars and Stripes, 
and Lord Granville replied that England was not prepared to open negotiations 
for the cession of Canada. An eulogistic article on Johnson at the time of 
his return to -the United States may be found in 2 Balto. Law. Trans. 460, 
May 18, 1869. 

** April 10, vol. 42, p. 442. 

** 8 Nation 446, June ip, from interview in New York Times. He spoke of 
the hospitality he had jreceived, alluded to Sumner's speech as a preposterous 
performance and looked for a reaction in his favor. (He also made a depre- 
ciatory allusion to Smalley, who had attacked him in the Trfbune.) John 
Bigelow's Memoirs, vol. 4, pp. 230, 244, 245, 269, 278, 287, show the popular 
feeling in 1.869 with reference to the Johnson-Clarendoii Treaty. 

'" John Bigelow's Memoirs, vol. 5, p. 423. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 253 

Under this convention the question of the recognition of South- 
ern belligerency, as well as any other question which either 
government might think proper to raise before the Commis- 
sion, could have been presented. 

He maintained that during the* interval between the 
transmission of the treaty to the Senate and its rejec- 
tion, he was "not advised by any member of the body, 
or by the State Department, what were the objections 
to the convention, or that there were any." • The news- 
papers led him to believe that objection was made, 
because the treaty contained no provision for "the 
settlement of claims which our government then sup- 
posed it had in its own right upon Great Britain. Up 
to this time, I had never heard that the United States 
contemplated such a demand. My instructions, as did 
those of Mr. Adams, looked exclusively to the adjust- 
ment of individual claims." When Johnson learned that 
some Senators thought that the United States had a 
"claim of its own for alleged pecuniary- losses, caused 
directly or indirectly by the conduct of the British gov- 
ernment, I proposed to Lord Clarendon, first in a per- 
sonal interview and afterwards in an oilficial note dated 
the 25th of March, 1869-, the signing of a supplementary 
convention, which should only so far modify that of 
the fourteenth of January as to provide for the settle- 
ment of any claims that either government might have 
upon the other." Clarendon's answer, on April 8, led 
Johnson to believe that, "if I was expressly instructed 
to make sucli an offer, it would be acceded to," where- 
upon Johnson telegraphed Fish, the* new -Secretary of 
State, that he thought he could obtain "such a modifi- 
cation, if instructed to propose it." Fish telegraphed 
back that the convention was before the Senate and the 
President, therefore, " did not think it advisable to change 



254 REVERDY JOHNSON 

it." Johnson could not see the force of this reason, "if 
the administration really desired an amicable settlement 
of the controversy," and told Parker I hat he believed 
that individuals had the right to apply directly to Great 
Britain for redress, without violating any federal law 
and that underwriters who have paid insurance had also 
a right by the doctrine of subrogation to apply to Great 
Britain. He was surprised to hear that the administra- 
tion thought otherwise. 

There were important postscripts to Johnson's English 
ministry in two pamphlets which he printed in 1871 
and 1872, in response to a speech of Sir Roundell Palmer," 
afterwards Earl of Selborne, and to a resolution intro- 
duced into the House of Representatives by Hon. J. A. 
Peters. ^^ Grant had taken up the matter of settling 
disputes with England and the treaty of Washington 
had been concluded, referring the question to arbitrators 
at Geneva. Johnson felt that our claims were well 
founded and that it was proper to leave to arbitration 
the decision as to the rightfulness of the British proc- 
lamation of May 13, 1861, recognizing the Confederates 
as belligerents, especially as Lord Russell had used extra- 
ordinary haste in issuing it. It was "more than prob- 
able that, if they had not been recognized as belliger- 
ents, the war would have terminated much sooner than 
it did." Our government had refused to arbitrate, unless 
the English had included the consideration of the bel- 

" The Reply is dated September 8, 1871, and contains 50 printed pages. In 
his Personal and Political Memorials, Part II, vol. I, p. 209 and 224, the Eari, 
with whom Johnson claimed a slight acquaintance, said that the Reply con- 
firmed, rather than displaced, his reasons for preferring the settlement made 
by the treaty of Washington. 

'* Letter from Hon. Reverdy Johnson to Hon. John A. Peters, on the subject 
of the Washington Treaty and its construction in relation to the claim of the 
United States for Consequential Damages. Baltimore, 1872, pp. 19. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 255 

ligerency in the treaty. The Johnson-Clarendon treaty 
had been hailed with deHght in England and had been 
rejected in the United States, through causes wholly 
irrespective of its merits. The value of arbitration is 
shown in the disastrous results of the recent Franco- 
Prussian war and the decision of the case will not im- 
peach England's honor. Our position was that the 
losses for which damages are claimed were incurred 
through England's violation of neutrality, as defined 
by International law, or through intentionally failing to 
enact municipal laws coextensive with her neutral duty, 
or through her failure to enforce such of her laws as 
fulfilled her neutral obligations at international law. 

It had been the uniform doctrine of the United States 
that neutrality is a part of international law and that 
the "Law of nations is as much a part of the law of 
every civilized government, as is its own municipal 
legislation." The manner of fulfilling the international 
obligations of a neutral rests on municipal law and, if 
such law was inefficient, the neutral power may not 
defend itself, by saying that it executed the law in good 
faith. The Jay treaty is a precedent, as it provided for 
the consideration of English claims by reason of cap- 
tures "taken by vessels originally armed in the ports" 
of the United States. The duty of vigilance is involved 
in the duty of neutrality. "It is for a neutral nation 
herself to guard against its violation. She has no right 
to call upon the belligerent to assist her" and he is un- 
able to ascertain what goes on in her ports. England 
failed to exercise due diligence as to the Florida and the 
Alabama. The Florida was allowed to depart from 
Liverpool and from Nassau and the crew of the Alabama, 
who burned captured ships, as the Confederacy had no 
ports which they might be taken, committed treason 



256 REVERDY JOHNSON 

against the United States. The fact that the vessels 
were not fully armed when they left England does not 
relieve her of responsibility, for she used no "diligence 
at all, in the legal sense of the term." He examined the 
evidence in detail and said that Laird's rams were seized 
later on no greater evidence, when England feared de- 
mands for indemnity and could see that the South's 
cause was lost. Johnson praised Adams, his predecessor, 
and Sumner, whose support of the recent treaty did him 
honor. Although the people of Liverpool had winked 
at the slavery in a foreign land through which they had 
acquired riches, yet, when Johnson visited that place 
as a guest of the city, he 

was truly glad to find that whatever of hostile feeling towards 
the United States had been entertained by the people, pending 
the insurrection, no longer existed. The attentions paid mc- 
as the official representative of my country, by every class and 
the manner in which they received the expression of my hope 
and belief that the friendly relations of the two countries 
would soon be perfectly secured, satisfied me that they as 
sincerely desired such a result as I did. 

In the pamphlet addressed to Mr. Peters, who had 
introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives 
to the effect that the claim for consequential damages 
be withdrawn and with whose views Johnson agreed, 
the latter set himself to consider what was the true con- 
struction of the treaty of Washington, irrespective of 
extrinsic circumstances, what was the effect of such 
circumstances in showing the purpose of the two gov- 
ernments, and what course our government should adopt, 
if Great Britain should refuse to submit the claim for 
consequential damages to arbitration. England ex- 
pressed regret for the depredations, but her expressions 



REVERDY JOHNSON 257 

do not cover indirect or consequential damages. Such 
immense losses would surely have been made the sub- 
ject of arbitration in clear terms, if the government in- 
tended to include them. The claim for consequential 
damages rests on the assumption that the cruisers col- 
lectively produced such damages, through the cost of 
pursuing the vessels, the transference of vessels in the 
commercial marine from the American to the British 
flag, the increased premium of insurance, and the pro- 
longation of the war. Johnson held that the arbitrators 
had no right to decide on the result produced by the 
cruisers in the aggregate, but to find what is due on 
account of each cruiser and so no indirect damages 
should be allowed. The precedent treaties, viz., that 
of Jay, that of 1853, the Johnson-Stanley protocol of 
November 9, 1868, which had not been satisfactory to 
President Johnson, and the Johnson-Clarendon conven- 
tion, had not included consequential damages. Sumner's 
speech of April 13, 1869, was the first suggestion that 
this omission was a fault. The war was far from an 
end at the battle of Gettysburg and it continued through 
the "indomitable courage and consummate skill of the 
armies of the Confederates and of their resolve to con- 
tinue the struggle, until all hopes of success were lost." 
The chief causes of the rejection of the Johnson-Clarendon 
treaty were the circumstances attending its negotiation, 
which circumstances, as Hamilton Fish, Grant's Secre- 
tary of State, wrote Motley on May 15, 1869, "were 
very unfavorable to its acceptance, either by the people 
or by the Senate." 

The nation had just emerged from its periodical choice of 
chief magistrate and, having changed the depository of its 
confidence and its power, looked with no favor on an attempt 
at the settlement of the great and grave questions depending. 



258 REVERDY JOHNSON 

by those on the eve of retiring from power, without consulting, 
or considering, the views of the ruler recently intrusted with 
their confidence and without communication with the Senate, 
to whose approval the treaty would be constitutionally sub- 
mitted, or with any of its members. 

Our government should withdraw its claims for con- 
sequential damages, since "the leading object of the 
treaty, and that which has challenged for it the approval 
of mankind, is that it substituted a peaceful and honor- 
able termination of national controversies by arbitra- 
tion, for the uncertain, inhuman, unchristian arbitra- 
ment of the sword." Should the administration per- 
sist In the claim, Congress should express an opinion 
on the subject, having a right to do so, from being 
invested with the war power. Inasmuch as the conduct 
of the executive would be likely to lead us Into contro- 
versies with foreign power. The public spirit shown In 
these pamphlets and the cogency of their arguments 
are noteworthy and the fact that Johnson prepared and 
published them showed his continued Interest In na- 
tional affairs. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Last Years and Death (1869-76) 

Johnson returned from England early in June, 1869, 
and took up the practice of the law with such zest that 
his seventy- three years seemed to have brought no old 
age to him. Judge Dennis writes of him that, in these 
latter days, "he seemed to me, half the time to be try- 
ing a case for the fun of it;" but that, "in the general 
conduct of the case, his skill, his resourcefulness, his 
pertinacity, and a courage, which no difficulties, or un- 
foreseen adverse happenings, could ever daunt, made 
him an antagonist to be dreaded to the end." He was 
said to be "most dangerous," because "you never could 
be sure when you had him beaten." Governor John 
Lee Carroll^ said: 

I always considered him a great leader, in the days when 
there were giants at the head of the Maryland bar and his 
manly courage was as great as his ability. 

Sergeant wrote in 1873,^ that Johnson's name was 

' Letter of May 2, 1906. 

* N. Sergeant, Men and Events. Another interesting testimonial is found in 
Scharf's Baltimore City and County at p. 715. "A man of wonderful power, 
both physical and mental, combative yet subtle, acute, yet never wasting time 
on hairsplitting. Mr. Johnson's scope and range were remarkable. He could 
talk, to a jury of plain farmers in a simple diction of which they understood 
every word, or thought they did, and so make them have perfect faith in a 
new medical theory of 'moral insanity,' invented by him for the nonce and 
reenforced by precept and example. He knew, none better than he knew, 
how to address the venerable justices of the Supreme Court, so as to win their 
approbation, while securing their attention and giving them the pleasing sense 
of relief from the deluge of verbiage perpetually rising round and threatening 
to overwhelm them. He was the readiest of debaters in the Senate, where his 

259 



260 REVERDY JOHNSON 

"familiar to every man of intelligence in the United 
States and designated one not less universally respected 
than known." As a lawyer, he was a "colossal and 
familiar figure" and was held, by "his legal associates," 
as the "head of the bar of the Supreme Court." He 
"combined the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re 
and denunciation, or harsh charges, were foreign to him." 
He possessed "ready and most felicitous oratorical pow- 
ers"' and a "happy tact in after dinner speeches." 

He continued to appear in important cases, such as 
the one concerning the fraudulent stock of the Parkers- 
burg Branch Railroad,* the one concerning the capitation 
tax on the Washington Branch Railroad^ and the one 

profound grasp of constitutional subjects kept him ready armed in any emer- 
gency. He was skillful, astute, and om fait in all the language and terms of 
diplomacy, never losing sight of the main issue of his case, while affecting, with 
the politesse of Talleyrand, the indifferent attachment of a Walpole to the middle 
way of a compromise, and, as an after dinner speaker, he was as clear, as genial, 
as sparkling, and as delightful as a draught of old South side Madeira, sunny 
and golden as the rays in which it had ripened. His capacity for work and 
business was almost miraculous. It despised the weight of years and the loss 
of sight." 

' Mr. J. V. L. Findlay writes that Judge Hugh L. Bond told him that when 
Johnson was counsel for the members of the Ku Klux Klan, indicted in the 
United States Court in South Carolina, he showed his gift for repartee. A 
member of the Klan had turned State's evidence and was an over smart witness. 
He had given a description of the meeting of the KJan, of the oaths taken, 
and the ritual, in his examination in chief, and Mr. Johnson, at the close of it, 
asked him, whether he had told every thing he knew about the Klan and he 
then, with apparently timid reluctance and with a cunning sort of reserve, 
said, "No;" whereupon Mr. Johnson said: "Out with it, we want to hear it 
all." The witness then said there was one thing he had failed to mention and 
that was that, at the close of the meeting to which he had referred, a hat was 
passed around to take up a collection for Mr. Johnson's fee, whereupon Mr. 
Johnson, as quick as a flash, said " I hope the meeting did not appoint you to 
carry the hat." 

* In 1870, Scharf's Chronicles of Baltimore, p. 681. 

* Johnson gave an opinion against the constitutionality of that tax which 
was published in pamphlet form in 1870, pp. ic 



REVERDY JOHNSON 26 1 

concerning the North Carolina special tax bonds." His 
very last case was an ordinary damage suit for false 
arrest and imprisonment, which, like other nisi prius 
cases, he took, in Judge Dennis's opinion, "largely for 
the fun he got out of it." 

In the beginning of the Presidential Campaign of 1872, 
on April 26, Johnson wrote Governor Bradford, that it 
was important for the latter to go to the Cincinnati 
Convention. Johnson believed that Judge Davis would 
be named and believed his nomination for the Presi- 
dency to be the strongest one that could be made. 

His high character, great talents, great firmness, and liber- 
ality can not fail, if he is nominated, to obtain for him the 
votes of thousands of Republicans in all the States, as well 
as to obtain the general support of the Democratic party. 

When the Convention, however, named Greeley for 
the Presidency, Johnson decided to support him against 
Grant and in July published an opinion of Greeley, as pos- 
sessing "extraordinary ability, perfect patriotism, and in- 
corruptible integrity."' The faults of Grant's adminis- 
tration were set forth in detail and Greeley's protectionist 
ideas were not considered sufficient reason to reject him. 
He had been a friend to peace and to the South from the 
end of the war. As a "constant and ardent friend of 
general amnesty and of universal suffrage, he cannot but 
have commended himself to the good opinion of the 
white and colored citizens of that region." 

Johnson spoke in public for the last time on January 

'His opinion in favor of the legality of these bonds was printed in 1873, 
p. g. 

' A correspondence between the Hon. James Brooks of New York and the 
Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Baltimore on the State of the Country and the 
way to avert the peril which threatened it, 1872, p. 13. 



262 REVERDY JOHNSON 

15, 1875/ at a meeting held in Baltimore, when he 
attacked the Federal administration for its policy in 
Louisiana. He put the responsibility for the action of 
the United States troops in that State entirely on Grant 
and said he would have voted to convict Andrew John- 
son, at the time of the impeachment trial, if like accusa- 
tion had been made against him. On September 15, 
he presided at a mass meeting in Baltimore, held in 
favor of the Democratic State ticket, which contained 
the name of his son-in-law, C. J. M. Gwinn, as candi- 
date for attorney-general. He wrote a speech for that 
occasion, which was read for him, and which defended 
the nominees and the party organization, "Party tri- 
umphs," he said, "depend as much upon discipline as 
triumphs on the battlefield." He denied that corrup- 
tion had characterized the city or State governments 
and claimed that a Republican victory in the State 
would show confidence in the "national administration, 
whose continuance is pregnant with danger, both to 
our material interests and to the very forms of govern- 
ments."' At that last meeting, he showed his interest 
in younger men, by reminding John V. L. Findlay, one 
of the other speakers, as he rose on the platform, to use 
an anecdote which he had recently told Johnson and 
which the latter had enjoyed. The same kindliness of 
heart was shown in his habit of having his little grand- 
daughter read to him every night after dinner the jokes 
she would cut from the daily papers, whereupon he 
would place the clipping in his pocketbook for preser- 
vation to show his appreciation of them. His kind 
heart^° was also shown in that, whenever Johnson went 
to Annapolis, he bought from an old colored woman, 

* The Louisiana Matter, Address of Reverdy Johnson at the Meeting of the 
Citizens of Baltimore held in Masonic Temple, 1875, p. 20. 
' Speech delivered by Hon. Reverdy Johnson, 1875, P- 16. 
'" Told by Edwin Higgins, Esq. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 263 

whom he had known all his life, several packages, each 
containing a pound of taffy for one of his grandchildren.^^ 

On November 6, 1875, Johnson, with a son-in-law, 
Mr. Charles G. Kerr, went to England on legal busi- 
ness concerning lands in Florida, from which trip he 
returned on January 19, 1876. Shortly after his return, 
on February i, he wrote Senator Bayard that he had 
no doubt ot the constitutionality of a Congressional 
appropriation for the Centennial Exhibition. Although 
he had taken the side of the Democratic party in Mary- 
land in 1875, when libel suits were brought by public 
officials against the American, the Republican news- 
paper, shortly after the close of the campaign, Johnson 
volunteered his services as attorney for the defense, 
thinking the liberty of the press was in peril, and con- 
ferred with the senior editor of that paper on the very 
day before his death. ^^ 

In the Spring of 1875, he argued his last cases in the 
Supreme Court, but he continued to appear in the State 
Courts and, on February 10, 1876, went to Annapolis 
to be the guest of Governor Carroll, expecting to argue 
a case before the Court of Appeals on the next day.^^ 

" I B. R. Curtis's Life, 44. 

'2 When the editor of the New York Tribune was arrested at the suit of ex- 
Govemor Shepherd of the District of Columbia, Johnson left Baltimore for 
Washington and sent his son at once to see if there was imminent danger, act- 
ing on the double ground of sympathy and personal friendship for the defend- 
ant. Before going to Europe in December, he took pains to see that the case 
could not come up in his absence and, on his return, he wrote, advising the 
editor of that fact and asking that he be notified to appear at the trial. 

I'The case was Metcalf v. Brooklyn Life Insurance Company, in which 
Johnson was associated with Edwin Higgins, Esq. Mr. Higgins writes that 
"in this case he gave his time and abilities .... without compensa- 
tion, because our client was the son of one of his old friends, at one time clerk 
of the Criminal Court of Baltimore." Mr. Higgins was invited to Governor 
Carroll's to dinner that evening and, as he had opposed Carroll at the election 
the previous autumn, asked Johnson's advice as to accepting the invitation 
and was told: "Never mind the politics, accept by all means." 



264 REVERDY JOHNSON 

A number of gentlemen were Invited to meet him for 
dinner. After dmner, Johnson asked permission to lie 
on a sofa in the library for a few minutes. When he 
was sought there, the room was found empty and his 
dead body was discovered lying on the ground on the 
north side of the Executive Mansion. Some thought he 
had mistaken an open window for a door and had stepped 
out and fallen into the paved area below, but it was 
more probable that he had left the house for a short 
stroll, turned close to the wall, stumbled on a lump of 
coal and fell against a projecting corner of the building, 
thus fracturing his skull. 

On the next day, his death from an "unaccountable 
and unwitnessed accident" was announced by the Gov- 
ernor to the General Assembly, which was in session, 
and the flag on the State House was placed at half mast. 
Both Houses met, in the Hall of ihe House of Delegates, 
in the early afternoon and proceeded in a body to the 
Governor's Mansion, to join there the students of St. 
John's College, and the members of the Court of Appeals, 
in acting as an escort for the body to the depot. A 
joint committee of the General Assembly prepared reso- 
lutions of regret, which speak of Johnson as having 
' 'the consummate ability and commanding intellect, 
which exalted him as the foremost jurist of America 
and which bear testimony to his patriotic impulses, 
unsullied private character, and ennobling virtues. On 
the sixteenth, the resolutions were considered in the 
Senate, the gallery being filled with ladies, and several 
speeches were made, among them one by Dr. Lewis H. 
Steiner of Frederick, who stated that "there was some- 
thing indescribably grand in the resolute firmness with 

" Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, who was one of the physicians called in, wrote 
"I saw the body about 9.30. There were two cuts on the left side of his head, 



REVERDY JOHNSON 265 

which the veteran lawyer continued to tread the labor- 
ious paths of an exacting profession, after the eye had 
ceased to furnish the aid to research and study that 
would seem almost indispensable. "'^ 

The family declined a public funeral, but seventy 
carriages followed the hearse from his residence^^ to 
Greenmount Cemetery, where the burial took place on 
Sunday, February 13. On Friday, tributes had been 
paid him by lawyers in the Court of Appeals at Annapolis 
and in the United States Court in Baltimore,*^ while, 
on Saturday, a Bar Meeting had been held in his honor 
in Baltimore, at which Governor A. W. Bradford bore 
witness to Johnson's "lucid and logical arrangement, 
his cogent and resistless argument, and his matchless 
cross examination of a reluctant witness." At the same 
occasion, Thomas Donaldson spoke of his kindness of 
heart, courtesy, quickness of mind, and cheerfulness; 
and George William Brown remarked upon the way in 
which his "powerful mind fastened itself, with intense 
concentration, on the case which he had in mind." 

A meeting of Marylanders resident in Washington 
was held in his memory, presided over by Dr. C. C, 
Cox. The Department of Justice was closed, and, after 

the skull was crushed, the ossa nasi broken, one finger on the left hand dis- 
located and bruises on various parts of the body. It is surmised that he fell 
and struck his head against the wall." 

'■•The writer of a sketch of Johnson's life in Richardson and Bennett's 
Baltimore, p. 329, said of Johnson: "Simple in his taste, kind and generous in 
his impulses, a warm and confiding friend and a most forgiving enemy, he is 
not only entitled to the place we have given him among lawyers and states- 
men, but he commands an equally exalted position as a man." 

>«ii8 Park Street. 

" R. Stockett Matthews spoke of him in Baltimore "as a most accessible 
man and as not a case lawyer, but a reasoner." The Proceedings in the Court 
of .Appeals may be found in 43 Md. Reports XIII. Johnson's death was 
announced by Edwin Higgins, Esq., and S. T. Wallis. Alexander Randall and 
Judge J. L. Bartol spoke. 



266 REVERDY JOHNSON 

the funeral, on February i8, a meeting of the Bench and 
Bar of the Supreme Court was held in the Court Room.^^ 
Matthew H. Carpenter presided over the meeting and 
said: "I loved the old man." He "gave me fatherly 
recognition, became my adviser and ever after remained 
my friend." "His compact, firm knit frame, his heavy 
shoulders, his round head, his striking face, bearing the 
furrows of many sharp professional and political con- 
flicts, but from which there still shone his gentle kindly 
nature — all indicated a man of genial nature, yet reso- 
lute of purpose — a man easy to court, but dangerous in 
conflicts." 

Considering the extent and variety of his practice, his natu- 
ral resources and professional attainments, his thorough self- 
possession and steadiness of nerve, when the skill of an opponent 
unexpectedly brought on the crisis of a great trial — an oppor- 
tunity for feeble men to lose first themselves and then their 
cause — his fidelity to the oath, which was anciently adminis- 
tered to all the lawyers of England, to present nothing false, 
but to make war for their clients, the audacity of his valor, 
when the fate of his client was in the balance, he believing his 
client to be right, while every one else believed him to be 
wrong, remembering all these traits, we must rank him with 
the greatest lawyers and advocates of this or any other country. 

A committee of fifteen illustrious lawyers was appointed 
to prepare resolves. Senator George F. Edmunds of 
Vermont was chairman of the committee and spoke of 
the "extensive and varied contributions that he has 
made to jurisprudence and to its application to the 
affairs of men." "His great mind has been brought to 
the consideration of every variety of question that can 

'* Proceedings, etc., Washington, 1876, p. 23. The Proceedings in the 
United States Supreme Court may be found in 92 U. S. Reports. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 267 

arise In the afTairs of men, from the lowest and simplest 
to the highest and most complex." Thirty years later, 
Mr. Edmunds wrote, ^® "He was a great lawyer, a power- 
ful debater and a highbred gentleman, for whom I had 
much admiration." Philip Phillips followed Edmunds, 
bearing testimony to the fact that Johnson and B. R. 
Curtis were the "acknowledged leaders of the American 
bar and their experience, learning, and intellectual power, 
justified fully the high position which, by common con- 
sent, was awarded to them." Johnson uniformly dis- 
played "ability" in "the argument of his causes in the 
Supreme Court" and, ''amiability" In his "intercourse 
with his professional brethren." Theodore F. Frellng- 
huysen came next, saying that, "as a statesman he had 
large views and compassed the interests of his whole 
country. Eminently familiar with and learned In inter- 
national law. In constitutional law. In the history of 
his times and of his country, at any moment and on 
any emergency, he was ready to come to the front and 
there, courageously and ably, contend for what he be- 
lieved the best interests of his country." Johnson was 
"eminently a ready man" and a "patriot, with whom 
the love and the duty he owed his country was para- 
mount to any allegiance he owed to a party." Courage 
and generosity were his marked characteristics and "he 
delighted In words and acts of kindness. He withheld 
his sympathy from no one in trouble." George Ticknor 
Curtis bore testimony to his ability in the Dred Scott 
Case and E. N. Dickerson to his "reputation as a pro- 
found jurist, a wise legislator, and a noble, generous 
hearted friend," whose fame "fills the whole country 
and is cherished, wherever men rely on law for safety 

"Letter of May i, 1906. 



268 REVERDY JOHNSON 

and protection." John Randolph Tucker spoke of his 
generosity of disposition and Henry S. Foote paid a 
tribute to 

his learning, his high powers as a reasoner, his acknowledged 
skill as an advocate, his remarkable moral courage, .... 
his freedom from all party or sectional bias, his noble fidelity 
in friendship, his kindness in social intercourse .... 
The disappearance from the public arena of one so gifted, so 
pure, so magnanimous, so free from petty jealousies of every 
kind, from low and overselfish schemes for the acquisition of 
illicit gain, or for the attainment of oflScial station, may well 
be looked upon .... as one of the severest national 
calamities which have so lately fallen upon the American 
people. 

Last, Garfield spoke, who saw in Johnsoa "united 
the eminent citizen, the public servant, and the great 
lawyer," and who added that: 

More than any man we have known, Mr. Johnson has illus- 
trated the truth that the highest human symbol of omnipo- 
tence is found in the power of unremitting hard work. His 
monument was builded by his own hands. He made his for- 
tune and his fame by powerful, continuous, earnest, honest 
work. During the fourteen years of my acquaintance with 
Mr. Johnson, I never looked upon his face, without feeling that 
he was a Roman of the elder days, the very embodiment of 
rugged force and of that high culture which comes from con- 
tinuous persistent work. 

This remarkable meeting, where such notable testi- 
monies were given by such eminent lawyers was fol- 
lowed by the announcement of Johnson's death to the 
Supreme Court, on February 23, when the Attorney- 
General spoke of him as "one of the most eminent law- 
yers of this country and one of the very foremost coun- 
sellors of this court" and Chief Justice Waite replied 



REVERDY JOHNSON 269 

that "extensively employed, with scarcely an interrup- 
tion, in the most important causes," Johnson "was 
always welcome as an advocate, for he was always in- 
structive. His friendship for the Court was open, cor- 
dial, sincere. We mourn his loss, both as counsellor and 
friend." 

Of the numerous tributes from all sources, which ap- 
peared at the time of his death, two more may be cited. 
The Nation,*" which had sometimes opposed him, said 
that his death 

can hardly be said to be a loss to public life, as that career had 
been practically closed, .... but the bar loses in him 
one of its oldest and most respected members. He belonged 
to a past generation of lawyers, who made their entrance into 
life, when the practice of the law was a better school for sound 
thinking, good breeding, and good morals than it is now and 
he used his opportunities to such good advantage that he rose 
to prominent position, which he held easily to the day of his 
death. 

John W. Forney, who was Secretary of the Senate, 
and had often enjoyed his hospitality, wrote: 

I knew well his unrivalled abilities as a lawyer and as an 
advocate, and I had many occasions to prove the sincerity of 
his friendship, the dignity of his bearing, his genuine toleration, 
and his large and unexampled benevolence. But it was in his 
public relation to great questions that I fully appreciated his 
intense and devoted patriotism. A Southern man with South- 
ern sympathies, he loved his country with unchanging affec- 
tion. He was never an extremist and his natural and innate 
moderation always made him an invaluable medium between 
the ultras of both sides. Never shall I forget how often in 
the dark hour he pleaded for reconciliation. More than once 
he helped to decide questions in aid of the government and, 

-• Vol. 22, p. 106. 



270 REVERDY JOHNSON 

although often brought into conflict with the radical leaders, 
I think I can say that he never once lost his temper. Others 
differed to the verge of personal hostility. Many old friends 
in public life were separated forever and died enemies, but 
Reverdy Johnson was so consistently a gentleman, belonged so 
entirely to the statesmen of the better days of the Republic, 
that, when he finally retired from the Senate, he did so with 
the respect and the confidence of both parties. Few men have 
lived a life of such comparatively unbroken happiness, of such 
wholly unbroken integrity. ^^ 

So simple a character as Johnson's needs little further 
summing up. He had the virtues of the school of legal 
ethics to which he belonged and his faults were also 
those of that school. At times, he was so carried away 
by his duty to his client as to permit a slight obscuration 
of his duty to the state and his kindliness and love of 
mercy caused him sometimes not to be insistent enough 
upon a just punishment for wrong doers, but in his 
faithful fulfillment of the duty of good citizenship we 
find few other defects. His political position was mar- 
vellously consistent and changed but little from year 
to year, because he had carefully thought it out and had 
based it upon fundamental principles. 

There have been three men and only three, to whom 
by common consent there has been given the proud 
title, leader of the bar of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. It is not likely that any man in the 
future will attain the unquestioned preeminence which 
these three gained in the past. The proud boast of the 
Maryland bar is that two of these three came from her 
numbers, that William Pinkney was the first of them 

2' Johnson's will, written by the late Hon. David Fowler, at his dictation, 
was interpreted by the Court of Appeals in Johnson v. Safe Deposit and Trust 
Company, 79 Md. 23. 



REVERDY JOHNSON 271 

in time, and that, after the death of the great orator, 
Daniel Webster, the first place came back to a Mary- 
lander lawyer and was held by Reverdy Johnson. Yet 
this great title is only part of his right to remembrance. 
His urbanity, his courtesy, his ironical disposition, his 
hopefulness, his consistency of purpose were such that, 
in a time of great national crisis, he deserved well of 
the Republic. The same qualities enabled him to inau- 
gurate the era of good feeling toward England, which 
has ever endured and which bids fair to endure far into 
the future. He was skillful as a lawyer, he was wise 
and able as a statesman, but best of all it can be said 
of Reverdy Johnson, as of the Roman of old time, that, 
in spite of all threatening storms and in the darkest 
hour of peril to the nation, he never despaired of the 
Republic. 



INDEX 



Abyssinians, 229, 230. 

Adams, C. F., 230, 233, 240, 253, 256. 

Adams, John, 158, 159 

Adams, John Q., 79, 179, 182. 

Admiralty law, 36. 

Admission of States, conditions up- 
on, 86. 

Agricultural education, ^^. 

Alabama Claims, 229, 230, 234 to 
236, 239 to 243, 249, 251, 252. 2SS, 
256 to 258. 

Alaska, annexation of, 193. 

Albany penitentiary, 94. 

Alexander, Thomas S., 57. 

Alexandria, 149, recession to Va., 138, 

139, 174- 
Allegiance, alienable, 230, 234, 236 to 

239- 
Allegiance to Nation, paramount, 45, 

56, 132, 192. 
Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, 

48. 
Amnesty proclamation, 70, 79. 
Andrew, Gov. John A., 76. 
Annapolis, 2, 12, 13, 25, 85, 262, 263, 

265. 
Annapolis, Naval Academy at, 87, 88, 

193- 
Annapolis post office, 19. 
Annexation of territory, 46, 49, 124, 

175- 
Appeals, 143, 222. 

Appropriations, expenditures, of 89. 
Argyll, Duchess of, 234. 
Arkansas swamp lands, 42, 174; re- 
construction, 86, 223 to 225. 
Army of the Potomac, defended, 82. 
Army regulations, 228. 



Bacon, Rev. Thomas, 2. 

Balch, L. P. W., 13. 

Baldwin, Roger S., 48. 

Baltimore, 3, 12 13, 19, 23, 38, 96, 179 
262, 265; politics in, from 1857 to 
i860, 41; union meeting in, 44: 
fighting on April 19, 1861, 50, 53 
71, 207; troops in, 52; prisons in, 71 
103, 107; wharf privileges in, 112; 
courtesy on Johnson's leaving foi 
Europe, 224. 

B. & O. R. R., 6, II, 22, 93, 112, 141, 
179, 187, 227. 

Baltimore County, 56. 

Bank of Maryland, 11, 12. 

Bank riots, 12. 

Bankruptcy law, 148, 185, 186. 

Banneker. Benjamin, 94. 

Bartol, J. L., 265. 

Bayard, James A., 66. 

Bayard, T. J., 263. 

Bel Air, 12, 13. 

Belgium, 97. 

Belligerency, 62, 84, 98, 128, 156, 229, 
240, 242, 250, 253, 254. 

Benjamin, Judah P., 55. 

Benton, Thomas H., 24. 

Berry, John S., 57. 

Betting by army officers, 228. 

Bigelow, John, 193. 

Bingham, H. A., iii. 

Birkenhead, 245. 

Blaine, James G., 63, 113, 129, 165. 

Blair, Gen. Frank P., 83. 

Blair, Montgomery, 37, 117. 

Bond, Hugh Lennox, 16, iii, 260. 

Bonds of U. S., 89. 

Book publishing, tax on, no. 

Border States, 46, 85, 103. 



273 



274 



INDEX 



Boston, 43. 

Bowie, Mary Mackall, 3. 

Bowie, Oden, 215. 

Bowie, Gov. Robert, 3. 

Bowie, Thomas Contee, 3. 

Bradbury, James Ware, Senator, 38. 

Bradford, A. W., 46, 63, 64, 72, 75, 88, 

184, 204, 211, 261, 265. 
Brazil, 96. 

Breckenridge, John B., 210. 
Brengle Home Guard, 52. 
Brewer, Nicholas, 2. 
Bridge, power of federal government 

to construct, 113. 
Bright, John, 247, 248. 
Brodhead, Richard, 112. 
Brooklyn, 64. 
Brooks, Preston, 39. 
Brown v Maryland, 11, 91. 
Brown, B. Gratz, 172. 
Brown, George William, 265. 
Brown, John, 40, 50, 157. 
Browning, Orville H., 247. 
Buchanan, Franklin, 83, 214. 
Buchanan, James, 39, 181, 204, 210, 

211, 212. 
Buckalew, Charles R., 150, 169, 208, 

211, 213. 
Burke, Edmund, 68. 
Burnside, Ambrose, 82. 
Butler, Benjamin F., 54, 58, 59, 88. 

Cabinet officers, position of, 147, 158, 

161, 201. 
Calhoun, John C, 22, 52, 80, 148, 179. 
California, 23, 26, 30, 34, 42, 96, 112, 

225. 
Cairns, Lord, 37. 
Campbell, J. M., 37, 41, 109. 
Cameron, Simon, 54, 215. 
Canada, 98. 
Canal tolls, 92. 
Carlile, John S., 113. 
Carmichael, Judge R. B., 184, 215. 



Caroline County, 103. 
Carpenter, Matthew H., 116, 266. 
Carroll, John Lee, 259, 263. 
Carroll, Thomas King, 57. 
Cass, Lewis, 25, 32. 
Centennial Exposition, 263. 
Chambersburg, 150. 
Chandler, Zachariah, 90, 177. 
Chapman, Gen'l. John G., 20. 
Charleston (S. C), 40, 43, 211. 
Chase, S. P., 17, 52, 89, 132, 203, 

220. 
Chesapeake Bay, steamships on, 55; 

land about, 95. 
Chestertown, 71. 
Chicasaws, 188. 
Chinese, 173, 180. 
Choctaws, 188. 
Christianity, 42. 
Citizenship of U. S., 119, 123, 126, 

134, given to residents in annexed 

territory, 124. 
Civil rights bill, 123, 130, 168. 
Civil Service, 160, 162, 228. 
Claggett, T. J., 54. 
Clarendon, Lord, 241, 242, 253. 
Clay, Henry, 19, 159, 179; opinion of 

Taney, 77; character, 218. 
Clayton, John M., 18. 
Clerks in departments, salaries of, 

150, 162. 
Cobb, Howell, 40, 213. 
Cobb, John A., 44. 
Collamer, Jacob, 48, 81, 109, 138. 
Colorado, admission as state proposed, 

147, 171. 
Columbia, S. C, burning of, 133. 
Commerce, Interstate, iii, 139, 140. 
Confederate States, Status of, 85. 
Confederate States not recognized by 

foreign powers, 65. 
Congress, adjournment of, 177, 216. 
Congress, power of, 68, 70. 
Congressional Globe, 97. 



INDEX 



275 



Conkling, Roscoe, 198, 205, 214. 
Connecticut, 93. 
Connellsville R. R., 141. 
Conness, John, 183, 184, 214, 215. 
Conservative Unionist Convention of 

1866, 151. 
Constitution, loose construction of, 

73, 90. 

Constitution in Confederacy, 85. 

Constitution to be obeyed by legisla- 
ture, 92. 

Constitution of U. S., eulogy of, 39, 

47- 

Constitution of U. S., acts on citizens, 
45, 46, 56, 67, 87, 107, 131, 217. 

Constitutional Amendment, neces- 
sary vote upon, 96. 

Contracts, obligation of, 225. 

Consular service, 97. 

Cooke, Jay, 89. 

Copyright library, 228. 

Corporation in District of Columbia, 
138, 179, 227. 

Corporations not disloyal, 177. 

Cotton tax, 225. 

Court of Claims, 189. 

Courts martial, 103. 

Cowpens, 213. 

Cox, C. C, 265. 

Cox, Jacob D., 198. 

Cox, S. S., 50, 127, 200. 

Crawford, G. W., Secretary of War, 35. 

Creswell, John A. J., 57, 71, 122, 123, 
137, 180, 181, 184, 187, 204. 

Criminal law, 97. 

Crisfield, J. J., 46, 49. 

Crittenden, John M., 19, 36. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 192. 

Cumberland Road, iii. 

Cummings, Rev., 117. 

Commutation for drafted men, 84. 

Currency, 90, 91. 

Curtis, Benjamin R., 17, 38; friend- 
ship for, 39, 117, 267. 



Curtis, George Ticknor, 37, 267. 
Curtis, Gen. Samrel R., 97. 
Customs administration in rebel states, 
128, 129. 

Davis, David, 261. 
Davis, Garrett, 68, 69, 81, 97, lor, 184, 
214. 

Davis, Henry Winter, i, 3, 57, 139. 
Davis, Jefferson, 56, 59, 100, 156, 157, 

177, 208. 
Davis-Wade plan of reconstruction, 

65, 109. 

Debt of United States, 89, 90, 92. 
Debts of Confederate States, 193. 
Deficiency bill, 89. 
Democratic party, Johnson's opinion 

of, 29; his affiliation with, 39, 40, 43, 

143, 151, 169. 262, 263. 
Dennis, J. Upshur, 7, 15, i6, 17, 18, 

35, 259, 261. 
Denmark, 35. 

Departments of government, separa- 
tion of, 163. 
Dickerson, E. M., 36, 267. 
Dickins, Asbury, 229. 
Diplomatic service, 97. 
Direct tax, 128, 137, 148, 153. 
Disloyalty defined, 219. 
Disraeli, Benjamin, 236. 
District of Columbia, 94, 112, 138, 178, 

179, 215, 216, 227. 
Dix, John A., 54. 
Donaldson, Thomas, 265. 
Doolittle, James R., 206, 208. 
Dorchester County, 113. 
Dorsey, Walter, 4. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 40, 43, 174, 214. 
Drake, Charles D., 208, 211, 214, 216, 

217. 
Dred Scott Case, 37, 40, 43, 47, 49, 77, 

113, 119, 123, 267. 
Duelling, 15, 18. 



276 



INDEX 



Eastern Shore, 71, 122. 

Economy in admiBistration of govern- 
ment, 75. 

Edmunds, George F., 159, 160, 174, 
198, 205, 206, 210 266, 267. 

Electoral votes, counting of, 108, con- 
gressional power over, 109. 

Ellicott City, 6. 

Emancipation of slaves in Maryland, 
32, 73, 76, 79, 88, los, 106, 180. 

Emancipation proclamation, 64, 73, 
79, 106. 

Eminent domain, 96, 97. 

Emory, W. H., 200. 

England in Mexican war, 23. 

England, Oregon difl&culty, 22. 

England, Johnson's visits to, 18, 37, 
263. 

Enlistment for 3 years, 84. 

Enlistment of 100 day volunteers, 82, 

83. 
Enrollment act, 69, 70. 
Ecuador, 229. 
Ericsson, Capt. John, 85. 
Everett, Edward, 50. 
Evidence of parties to suit, 9, 57, 77; 

of negroes, 76. 
Ewing, Thomas, 50. 
Express companies, tax on, 92. 

Farragut, David Glasgow, Admiral, 

64. 
Federal officers, protection of, 143. 
Fees from clients while Senator, 54, 66. 
Fenians, 150, 234, 237, 250. 
Ferry, Orris S., 211, 220. 
Fertilizers, tax on, no. 
Fessenden, William P., 62, 92, 97, 118, 

134, 141, 162, 182, 187, 209, 210. 
Field, David Dudley, 117. 
Filmore, Millard, 50, 146. 
Findlay, John V. L., 57, 262. 
Fish, Hamilton, 253, 257. 
Florida, the, 255. 



Florida, reconstruction of. 22.1;. lands 

in, 263. 
Floyd, John B., 182, 213. 
Foot, Solomon, 133. 
Foote, Henry S., 267. 
Foreigners, property of, $8. 
Forney, John W., 268. 
Fort Delaware, 63. 
Fort Fisher, 103. 
Fort Pillow massacre, 83. 
Fort Sumter, 46, 53, 103, 181, 212 
Fortification of ports, 103. 
Foundry Methodist Graveyard, 179. 
Fourteenth Amendment, 119, 129, 

137, 164, 173, 196, 206, 209, 220. 
Fowler, David, 270. 
Fowler, Joseph S. 211. 
Fox, G. v., no. 

France, 250; in Mexican war, 23. 
Frederick City, 10, 13, 52. 
Freedman's Bureau, 103 121, 149, 

168. 
Frelinghuysen, Theodore F., 206, 266. 
Fugitive slave acts, 80. 

Galphin claim, 35. 

Garfield, James A., 267. 

Garland, A. H., 42, 116, 117, 135. 

General Assembly of Maryland, 9, 
56, 264. 

General welfare clause, in. 

Geneva award, 254. 

Georgia, reconstruction of, 225. 

Georgia, Sherman's campaign in, 98. 

Germany, 35. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 56, 65, 257. 

Geyer, Henry S., 37. 

Ghieselen, Reverdy, 2. 

Giles, Wm. Fell, Judge, 17. 

Gill, R. W., 14. 

Gilpin, Henry D., 36. 

Gladstone, William E., 245. 

Gold in U. S. treasury, 89, 90; specu- 
lation in, 89, 03. 



INDEX 



277 



Gold, tax on, no. 

Goldsborough, W. T., 46. 

Gooding v Oliver, 37. 

Granger, Francis, 19. 

Grant, Ulysses S., 82, 84, 239, 248, 

250, 251, 261, 262. 
Granvil'e, Lord, 252. 
Great Britain, friendship for, 230, 243, 

. 24s, 249- 

Great Britain, reception of Johnson in, 
236. 

Great Britain, peace of 1815 with, 39; 
neutrality of, 98, 150, 214, 239, 256; 
treaty of 1817 with, loi; treaty of 
1853 with, 239, 246, 249, 250, 257. 

Great Lakes, loi. 

Greeley, Horace, 261. 

Greenmount Cemetery, 265. 

Grimes, Gen., 23. 

Grimes, James W., 73, 202. 

Guarantee Clause of the Constitu- 
tion, 154, 171, 173, 19s, 219. 

Guerillas, punishment of, 84. 

Gunboat contractors, payment of, 58. 

Guthrie, James, 50. 

Gwinn, C. J. M., 54, 262. 

Habeas corpus, suspension of writ of, 
51, IIS, 144- 

Hale, John P., 65, 69, 113, 115. 

HaUeck, H W., 82. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 19, loi, 155, 160. 

Hamilton, Andrew, i. 

Hammond, William H., 63. 

Hampton, Wade, 133, 134. 

Harding, George, 36. 

Harlan, James, 71. 

Harper, Robert Goodloe, 4. 

Harris, Thomar, 10. 

Harvey, James E., Minister to Portu- 
gal, 147, 215. 

Hayne, Robert Y., 45. 

Henderson, John B., 36, 106, 202, 203. 

Hendricks, Thomas A., 137, 206. 



Hicks, Thomas H., 46, 52, 56, 57, 113 

to 1x5. 
Higgins, Edwin, 3, 4, 19, 263, 265. 
Hooker, Gen. Joseph, 82. 
Houston, Samuel, 15. 
Howard, Frank Key, 54. 
Howard, Jacob M., 139, 175, 181, 184, 

198, 205, 206, 211, 213. 
Howard, John Eager, 213. 
Howard, O. O., 178. 
Howe, T. O., 126 129, 135, 157, 205, 

206, 214. 
Hunter, R. M. T., 109. 
Hunter, Asst. Sec. of State, 229, 

239- 

Immigrant's passage money, 148. 
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 198 
Income tax, 92, 102, no. 
Indians, enlistment of, 62, 84; status 

of, 123, 134, 189, 194. 
Inhabitant, 124. 
Insane, enlistment of, 102. 
Interior Department of, 34. 
Internal improvements, 190. 
Internal revenue taxes, 92, 93, no, 

226. 
Iowa, banking in, 24; troops, 71. 
Irish famine, 149. 
Iron clad vessels, 103. 
Iron, railroad, import tax on, 93. 

Jackson Andrew, 31, 125, 145, 158, 
159, 161, 182, 218. 

Jay treaty, 255, 257. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 78, 219. 

Johnson, Andrew, 86, 120, 121, 126; 
vetoes civil rights bill, 124, 144, 
145; 151 to 153, 155, 159 to 161, 
167, 170, 171, 177, 182, 193, 195 
to 198, 218, 224, 247, 262; carries 
out Lincoln's policy, 144. 

Johnson, Deborah, 2. 



278 



INDEX 



Johnson, John, Jr., 2. 

Johnson, John, Sr., 2 

Johnson, Mary Mackall Bowie, 3, 55. 

Johnson, Reverdy, Jr., 14. 

Johnson, William Cost, 20, 21. 

Johnson-Clarendon treaty, see Ala- 
bama claims. 

Johnston, Joseph E., 215. 

Jones, Walter, 11. 

Judges, election of, 31. 

Judicial system of U. S. in South, 128, 
133. 153, 222. 

Jurors, 228. 

Jury, negroes on, 216. 

Jury trial, 97, 103, 148. 

Kennedy, John P., 20, 21, 54. 
Kentucky, 68; federal interference in, 

64, 103; invasion of, 69; tobacco, 

93; resolves of 1799, 219. 
Kerr, Charles G., 263. 
Key, Judge Edmund, 3. 
Key West, 95. 
Kirkwood, Samuel J., 130. 
Know Nothing party, 40. 
Ku Klux Klan, 260. 

Laird, John, 245. 

Laird's rams, 256. 

Lands, public, 22, 23, 25, 42, 96, 
190. 

Lands, can federal government buy 
for freedmen, 121. 

Lane, James H., of Kansas, 123. 

Latimer, W. K., 42. 

Latrobe, John H. B., 5, 151. 

Lee, Robert E., 214, 215. 

Leeds, 243. 

Legal tender notes, 188; constitution- 
ality of, 91. 

Legislature of Maryland, See General 
Assembly. 

Le Grand, J. C, 44. 

Lieber, Francis, loi. 



Lincoln, Abraham, 36, 46, 50, 52, 53, 
58, 59, 63, 75, 100; 141, 161, 212; in 
presidential campaign of i860, 43; 
Johnson defends in 1861, 51; proc- 
lamation of 1861, 128; Johnson 
breaks with, in 1864, 64; denounced, 
69, 81, 109; power supported, 82, 
reconstruction policy, 86, 104; pow- 
er over treaties, loi ; appointment 
of Lieutenant General, 82; refuses 
exchange of prisoners, 102; acts in 
regard to Maryland, 103; appoint- 
ments by, 107; early sympathy with 
secession, 109, 126; signs Thir- 
teenth Amendment, no; assassi- 
nated, 115. 

Liquor taxed, 92. 

Liverpool, 240, 245, 256. 

Loan bill of 1865, in. 

London, 240, 242. 

Louisiana, memorials from, in 1847, 
24; exhausted in 1864, 70; recon- 
struction in, 104 to 106, 163, 181 
to 262. 

Lowell, James Russell, 251. 

Luther v Borden, 69. 

Lynch, A. A., 54. 

McCardle case, 222. 
McClellan, George B., 56, 64, 82, 230. 
McCormick, Rev. Thomas, 10. 
McCormick reaper, 36. 
McCulloh v Maryland, 91. 
McCulloh, Hugh, 247. 
McDougall, James A., 113, 160. 
McKim, Isaac, 9. 
McLane Louis, n. 
McLean, John, 34, 36, 38, in. 
McMahon, J. V. L., n, 12; testimo- 
nial to Johnson, 14. 
Maddox, blockade runner, 65. 
Madison, James, 109, 125, 130. 
Magruder, A. C, n. 
Maher, 19. 



INDEX 



279 



Mail transportation, 96. 

Mails, secrecy of, 104. 

Maine, 108, 129, 141. 

Mangum, Willie P., 34. 

Marbury v Madison, 146. 

Marcy, William L., 160. 

Marine hospitals, 228. 

Married women, 188. 

Martin, Luther, 4, 10. 

Maryland, border State, 185. 

Maryland, constitution of 1864, 65, 
88, 103, 105, 196. 

Mar>'land constitutional convention 
of 1S67, 151, 154, 185, 197. 

Maryland elections, 70, 103, 115. 

Maryland, federal interference in, 64, 
71, 72, 103, 

Maryland, has it republican govern- 
ment, 215. 

Maryland, lawabiding, 166. 

Maryland, political campaign of 1866, 

151, 153- 

Maryland, politics in, 1867, 181, 185, 
196. 

Mar>'land. politics in 1876, 262, 263. 

Maryland, share in B.&O. R. R., 112. 

Maryland, tobacco, 93. 

Mar>'land, Union sentiment, in, 44, 
52, 53, 57, 59, 62, 71, 72, 74 76, 77, 
88, 114, 137, 207, 212 to 215, 219. 

Mason & Slidell, seizure of, 98. 

Massachusetts, 86, 106, enlistments in, 
74, 76; in 1812, 81. 

Matthews, R. Stockett, 57, 265. 

May, Henry, 54. 

Meade, George B., 65, 82. 

Meredith, William, 11. 

Meredith, W. M., Secretary of Treas- 
ury. 35- 

Merrick, William D., 20, 21. 

Merrimac, The, 85. 

Merriman ex parte, 51. 

Metcalf V. Brooklyn Life Ins. Co., 263. 

Methodist Church case, 36. 

Mexican independence, 37. 



Mexican territory, annexation of, 30. 
Mexican war, 23, 25 to 30, 32. 
Mexico, danger of war in 1865, 145. 
Mexico, Maximilian's empire in, 194. 
Mileage for Congressmen, 148. 
Military otBcers, indemnity to, 189. 
Military rule, 225. 
Military tribunals, 103, 107, 115. 116, 

136, 144, 220. 
Milligan, ex parte, 116, 144. 
Minnesota lands, 96. 
Miranda, Juan, 96. 
Mississippi, exhausted in 1864, 70. 
Missouri Compromise and the Dred 

Scott decision, 77, 123; Pinkney's 

speech, 86. 
Missouri constitution, 217. 
Money bills amendment by Senate, 

112. 
Monitor, The, 85. 
Monroe, James, in. 
Montana negro suffrage proposed in, 

77- 
Moore, W. H., 200. 
Morrill, Lot M., 142, 179, 207. 
Morris, John B., 14. 
Morton, Oliver P., of Indiana, 184, 

198, 207, 211, 219. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 162, 257. 
Mt. Vernon Association, 227. 

National Bank Stock, taxation of, 90, 

91. 
Naturalization, 40, 98, 124 to 126, 224, 

230, 235. 
Naval pension trust fund, 228. 
Navigable streams, 112. 
Navy on Great Lakes, 101. 
Nebraska, 171; admission, 172, 174. 
Negroes, capacity of 94, 120, 122, 124, 

130. 
Negroes, cruelty to, 38. 
Negroes, enlistment of, 62, 69 to 73, 

75, 76, 83, 84, 99, 102, 137, 177, 178. 



28o 



INDEX 



Negroes, growing cotton, 226. 

Negroes in D. C, 180; not to hold 
office there, 223. 

Negroes, in mail service, 76. 

Negroes in street railway cars, 94, 227. 

Negroes, need of protection in Mary- 
land, 121, 122. 

Negroes, not citizens, 123. 

Negroes, persons, 124, 130. 

Negroes, protection of by federal gov- 
ernment, 125. 

Negroes, relation with whites when 
freed, 81. 

Negroes, service sold in Maryland, 
1866, 180. 

Negroes, status of in general, 1 19, 1 20; 
in Maryland, 69, 72, 122, 130, 135. 

Negro suffrage in Alexandria, 174. 

Negro suffrage in D. C, 179, 180, 216. 

Negro suffrage in Maryland, 185. 

Negro suffrage in Montana, 77. 

Negro suffrage in Nebraska, 171. 

Negro suffrage, in seceded States, 106, 
107, 119, 129, 135, 154, 176. 

Negro suffrage, not in free States, 33, 
130, 165, 173, 180. 

Nelson, Thomas, Judge, 136. 

Neutrality law, 35, 98, 188, 229, 255. 

Nevada, 112. 

New Jersey Legislature, 142. 

New Madrid, 149. 

New Mexico, 26, 96. 

New Orleans, 58, 59, 181. 

New Orleans, Dutch Consul at, 58. 

Newport, R. I., Naval Academy at, 88. 

New York Tribune, 263. 

Norris, William H., 8, 41. 

North Carolina, 220, bonds, 261. 

Northern Central R. R., 141. 

Northern States partly to blame for 
war, 131. 

Nye, James Warren, of Nevada, 181, 
215. 



Oathof loyalty, 65, 71, 104, 11510117, 
^35, 151, 154, 164, 186, 211, 314, 
217; for senators 66, 68; import of, 
112. 

Ohio, 220. 

Ord, Edward O. C, General, 222. 

Ordinance of 1787, 106. 

Oregon boundary, 22. 

Oregon territory, 32, 33, 165, 171. 

Original Package doctrine, 1 1 . 

Pacificus letters of Hamilton, loi. 

Palmer, Roundell, 254. 

Panama Railroad, 34. 

Parker, John A., 252. 

Parkersburg Branch Railroad, 260. 

Patterson, David T., 137, 182. 

Peabody, George, 153. 

Peace hoped for, 100. 

Peace mission, 104. 

Peace Congress of 1861, 46 to 50, 97, 

212. 
Pearce, James Alfred, 20. 
Peck, H. W. H., 60. 
Peckham of New York, n6. 
Pennsylvania, 24. 
Pension agents, 157. 
Percival, Captain, 34. 
Peters, J. A.. 254, 256. 
Pettigru's law library, 149. 
Phelps, John W., Gen., 59. 
Phelps, Charles E., 8, 16. 
Philadelphia, Conservative Union con 

vention at, 151. 
Phillips, Philip, 267. 
Pierce, Franklin B., 50. 
Pinkney, William, 5, 86, 270. 
Police power, 11, 123. 
Polk, James K., 19, 20, 23, 26, 29, 31. 
Pomeroy, Samuel C, 198. 
Porter, David D., 64. 
Porter, Fitz John, 55. 
Portland, Maine, 149. 
Post roads, ni. 



INDEX 



281 



Potomac, 24. 

Poultney, Evan, 11. 

Presideot of the United States, term 
of office, 162, power of, 217, 218; 
veto power of, 30, 125, 171; appoint- 
ing power of, 30, 144, 158; power 
to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 
51; commander of army, 162, 163; 
power to declare rebellion ended, 
108; power to pardon, 109, 135, 154 
to 156; power of removal from of- 
fice, 120, 145, 146, 158, 159, 160, 201; 
power to recognize state govern- 
ment, 131. 

Presidential election of 1864, 87. 

Price, William, 20, 57. 

Prisoners, exchange of, 102. 

Prisoners, federal, 94, loi. 

Prisoners, rebel, loi, 102. 

Prize cases, 67, 79, 98, loi, 127, 195. 

Promotion of wounded officer, 84. 

Protective tariff duties, 92, 94, 171, 
187, 226, 261. 

Prussia, King of, 239. 

Puget Sound boundary, 234 to 236, 
238 to 242. 

Punch, cartoon in, 246. 

Quarantine laws, 140. 
Quicksilver duty on, 92, mine in Cali- 
fornia, 96. 
Quorum of Senate, 96, 199. 

Railroads, 112, 138, 140, 179, 195, 260. 
Railroads, land grants to, 96. 
Randall, Alexander, 2, 151, 265. 
Rebels, 104. 

Rebels, disfranchisement of, 192. 
Reconstruction of Arkansas, 86. 
Reconstruction of Louisana, 104. 
Reconstruction, act of 1866, 165. 
Reconstruction, act of 1867, 154, 155. 
Reconstruction, supplementary act, 
IS5, 17s, 176, 218. 



Reconstruction, Congressional plan, 
153, 168, 218. 

Reconstruction, Davis-Wade plan, 65. 

Reconstruction, Johnson's theory of, 
63, 68, 86, 87, 105, 107, 108, 119, 
120, 121, 126, 127, 131 to 134, 136, 
151, 153, 163, 165 to 169, 17s, 176. 
193, 194, 220, 221, 224. 

Reconstruction, joint committee on, 

120, i33> 137- 
Reconstruction, Lincoln's policy, 86, 

153, 159, 168. 
Reconstruction, Sumner's theory, 66, 

86, 87, 105, 132, 152, 175. 
Removal of deposits from U. S. Bank, 

10. 
Reports of Congressional debates, 25, 

97, 150, 189. 
Resignation of army and navy officers, 

83. 
Revolution, right of, 80, 173. 
Richardson, George R., i8. 
Richmond, 72, 104. 
Rider to appropriation bill, 146. 
Ridgely, Andrew Sterrett, 170. 
Right of persons, 172. 
Riots of 1835, 12. 

Rock Island arsenal, 97, bridge, iii. 
Roebuck, John Arthur, 243, 244. 
Roman, J. D., 46. 
Roman Catholic Church, 40. 
Round Bay, 150. 
Russell, Lord John, 229, 254. 

St. Alban's raid, 98. 

St. John's College, 2, 264. 

Sales, tax on, no. 

San Francisco, 42, 103, 150. 

San Juan Island, see Puget Sound. 

Sangster, Lawrence, 54. 

Santa Anna, 26. 

Saulsbury, Willard, 85. 94, 184- 

Saunders, George, 44. 

Saving banks, tax on, 92. 



282 



INDEX 



Schenck, Robert C, Gen., 83. 
Schley, Frederick, 185. 
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 94. 
Schurz, Carl, 177. 
Scott, Gen. Winfield, 82. 
Secession, Calhoun upon, 22, 52. 
Secession, danger of, 32. 44, 48, 49, 53, 

56. 
Secession, effect of, 105, 108, 121, 127, 

128, 13s, 139, 152, 160. 
Secessionists, Johnson's efforts for, 

54, 55, 58, 65. 
Secret agents of executive, 227. 
Seddon, John A., 48, 49. 
Selbome, Lord, 254. 
Selden, Henry R., 36. 
Senator, admission of, 141, 181, 204. 
Senators, credentials of, 225. 
Senator, election of, 142. 
Senator, expulsion of, 129. 
Senator, not civil officer, 68. 
Senate of Maryland, 8. 
Seward, William H., 34, 40, 58, 193, 

215, 234, 236 to 241, 246 to 248, 250, 

SSI- 
Sheffield, 243. 

Shepherd, Alexander Robey, Gov. of 
D. C, 263. 

Shepley, George F., Gov., 59. 

Sheridan, Philip H., 64. 

Sherman, John, 132, 134 182, 184, 210. 

Sherman, William T., 60, 98, 133, 134, 
198, 200. 

Shipbuilding, 226. 

Shipping favored, 188. 

Sickles, Daniel B., 192. 

Sisters of Mercy, visitation of by offi- 
cials, 112. 

Slave trade, interstate, 81. 

Slave trade, foreign, 106. 

Slavery abolition of in Maryland, 65. 

Slavery in D. C, 179. 

Slavery, extension of through Mexi- 
ican war, 27, 30. 



Slavery in Oregon, 32, 33. 
Slavery in territories, 32, 47, 49. 
Slavery, cause of the war, 56. 
Slavery, Johnson's opinion of, in 1847, 

28, 30; in 1848, 32, 33; in 1859, 41; 

in i860, 43; in 1864, 63, 64, 67, 70, 

73 to 75, 77, 95, 99; in 1865, 106, 

107, 122. 
Slavery, Johnson's view as to its ter- 
mination, 78, 79, 99, 220, 225. 
Slaves, without family relations or 

education, 74. 
Smith, General Samuel, 13. 
Smuggling, 148. 
Somerset County, 103. 
Soule, Pierre, 58. 
South American trade, 96, 229. 
South Carolina, secession of, 44 to 46, 

74, 128, 136, 180, 183, 184, 197. 
Speed, James, 117. 
Sprague, William, 203. 
Squatter sovereignty, 40, 43. 
Stamp tax, 92. 
Stanley, Lord, 234, 236 to 240, 241, 

245- 
Stansberry, Henr>-, 15, 117. 
Stanton, Edwin M., 36, 88, 141, 167, 

200 to 202. 
Stark, Benjamin, 182. 
State Banks, tax on, 91, 92, no. 
State, characteristic of, 190, 191. 
State sovereignty, 80, 107, 112, 125, 

126, 216, 224. 
Statehood, qualifications for, 148. 
States, essential to nation, 132, 152. 
States, equality of, 86, 106, 172, 174, 

224. 
Steamship subsidies. 96. 
Steiner, Lewis H., 264. 
Stephen, Leslie, 250. 
Stephen, Judge, 2. 
Stephens, A. H., 109, 207. 
Stevens, Thaddeus, 36, 195. 



INDEX 



283 



Stewart, William M., 183, 206, 208, 
211. 

Stockton, John P., 141, 142, 200. 

Stokes, William B., 210. 

Street Railway cars, negroes in, 94; 
on Sunday, 95. 

Strieker, Gen. John, 8. 

Subtreasury bill, 25. 

Suffrage, a privilege, 120, 130, 216. 

Suffrage, women's, 178. 

Suffrage in States, 105, 130, 135, 161, 
166, 180, 195, 224. 

Sugar, tax on, 226. 

Sumner, Charles, 105, 106, 112, 113, 
118, 130, 131, 142, 160 to 163, 174, 
i75> 177, 180, 185, 186, 194, 195, 
200, 209, 213, 215 216, 223, 234 to 
236, 238, 247, 248, 250, 252, 256, 
257; friendship for, 39; conflicts 
with, 62, 67, 76, 77, 80, 81, 86, 87, 91, 
95, 103, follows his opinion, 104; his 
opinion of Johnson. 

Sunday observance, 95. 

Supreme Court of U. S., 31, ^s, 44- 
143, 162, 166, 185, 189, 209; power 
to declare laws void, importance of, 
218, 222. 

Surratt, Mrs., 115, 116. 

Swann, Richard, 19. 

Swarm, Thomas, 88, 123, 154, 215. 

Switzerland, 239. 

Taney, Roger B., 10, 11, 31, 38, 40, 47, 
5i> 77, "3, 144, 157, 158, 189. 

Tariff of 1846, 24; of 1861, 90; of 1864, 
93; of 1867, 187. 

Taxation, necessary, 90; of goods in 
bond, 90. 

Taxes, collection of, 148. 

Taxing power of U. S., 92. 

Taylor, Zachar>-, 34, 35, 158. 

Tea, tax on, 93. 

Tennessee, 86, 137. 

Tenure of office act, 159, 161, 201. 



Territories, laws in, 34, 224. 
Texas, annexation of, 23, 26, 29, 32. 
Texas, navy of, 30, 34. 
Thirteenth Amendment, 63, 78, 79, 

81, 99, 100; signed by Lincoln, no. 
Thomas, Francis, 185. 
Thomas, Philip Francis, 181, 204. 
Thompson, Jacob, 213. 
Tipton, Thomas Warren, 208, 211. 
Tobacco, tax on, 93. 
Toombs, Robert, 100. 
Towson, 151. 
Transport of troops, 103. 
Treason, 69, 100, 128 135 156. 
Treasury notes in 1846, 24. 
Treaty of 1854 with England, 37. 
Treaties, President's power over, 101. 
Trvimbull, Lyman, 62, 97, 104, 113, 

118, 121, 123, 124, 126, 141, 145, 

149, 164, 182, 198, 205, 2c6, 209, 

213. 
Tucker, John Randolph, 268. 

Union feeling of Johnson in 1848,31; 
in i860, 42; in 1861, 56; in 1864, 75, 
80, 81, 91, 93; in 1865, 100, 107, 109; 
in 1866, 129, 131, 138; in 1868, 168, 
173, 182, 219. 

Union men in Confederate states, 67 
79, 80, 85, 175. 

Union, permanence of, 97. 

Union Pacific Railroad, 227, 228. 

United States Bank, removal of de- 
posits, 10, 158. 

Upper Marlborough, 3. 

Upshur, Judge, 19. 

Van Buren, Martin, 19, 32, 44, 50. 

Venezuela, 149. 

Vice President, power of, in electoral 

count, 108. 
Vickers, Harrison W., 215, 231. 
Victoria, Queen, 214, 236, 237, 250. 
Virginia's secession, 191, 192, 217. 



284 



INDEX 



Wade, Benjamin F., 99, 113, 132, 133, 

198, 199. 
Waite, Morrison R., 267. 
Walker, A., 59. 
Wallace, Gen. Lew, 72, 103. 
Wallis, S. Teackle, 6, 41, 265. 
War of 1812, 2, 22, 81, 108, 129. 
War power, 62, 67, 79, loi, 108, 109, 

121, 127, 152, 165, 191, 195. 
War, probable duration of, 70, 72, 84, 

87, 98, 100, 104. 
Waring v. Clarke, 36. 
Washington, George, 75, 95, 107, 155, 

220. 
Washington Cit^', 39; registration of 

voters in, 94; arsenal, 149; charter, 

223; named, 240, 242, 243. 
Washington Branch Railroad, 267. 
Washington, treaty of, 254, 256. 
Watson, P. H., 36. 
Webster, Daniel, 11, 19, 23, 45, 182, 

271. 
Weed, Thurlow, 36. 
Welles, Gideon, 151, 167, 170, 171, 240, 

241, 245 to 247, 251. 
West PointMilitary Academy, 87, 149. 
West Virginia, 138, 165, 190. 



Western States, danger of their growth, 

172. 
Wheeling Bridge case, 36, 139. 
Whig party, 9, 39. 
Whig Convention of 1839, 1%. 
Whig Convention of 1844, 19. 
Whiskey insurrection, 155, 159. 
Whiskey, tax upon, 88, no. 
Whyte, Wm. Pinkney, 231. 
Willey, Waitman T., 95, 115. 
Williams, George H., 118, 160, 162, 

165, 207. 
Williams v. Gibbs, 37. 
Wilmot Proviso, 27. 
Wilson, Henry, 27, 69, 70, 113, 120. 
Winans, Ross R., 54. 
Winder, W. H., 54. 
Winnebago Indians, 94. 
Wirt, William, 11, 13, 149. 
Wisconsin, banking in, 24; road in, 96. 
Woodsworth Planing Machine, 36. 
Worcester County, 123. 
Wright, William, 171. 

Yates, Richard, 210, 211. 
Yucatan, 36. 



31|77-1 



